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STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 
















































































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Making The Fire 

(See Page 58) 








STORIES OF 
THE STONE AGE 


A BOY’S LIFE IN 16,000 B.C. 

By 

EDWARD COLTON FELLOWES 

H 



BOSTON 

SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 











Copyricht, 1925 

By SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY 

(Incorporated) 


t 


* 

C 

( ( 

♦ • 


Printed in the United States of America 


THE MURRAY PRINTINC COMPANY 
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 

THE BOSTON BOOKBINDING COMPANY 
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 


NOV 19’25 ©cus-72500 



Vt A? j 


CONTENTS 


Chapteb 

I. 

An Enemy in the Dark . 






Page 

1 

II. 

Ruig at Home . 






11 

III. 

Flint and Bone 






21 

IV. 

Outwitting the Strong 






29 

V. 

Huth the Cunning One . 






39 

VI. 

The Pack 






47 

VII. 

Fire .... 






55 

VIII. 

Hunting the Saber-tooth 






65 

IX. 

The Caves 






73 

X. 

The Invaders . 






81 

XI. 

The Great Mystery 






91 

XII. 

Bram the Prophet 






99 

XIII. 

A Great Discovery 






107 

XIV. 

The Battle of the Monsters 





117 

XV. 

The Mighty Bright One 






125 

XVI. 

Strange Visitors . 






133 

XVII. 

Pictures in the Cave 






143 

XVIII. 

Growing Up . 






151 

XIX. 

The Great Testing 

. 





159 







LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


Making the Fire 

. Frontispiece 

On the Watch . 

PACK 

. 8 

The Coming of the Pack . 

.50 

The Saber-Tooth At Bay . 

.70 

Repulse of the Hyenas . 

.86 

Bram’s Discovery . 

.102 

Worshiping the Sun-God 

.130 

The Artist 

.148 




























AN ENEMY IN THE DARK 





STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


CHAPTER I 

An Enemy in the Dark 

U P in the branches of the big tree something moved, 
making an unusual commotion among the leaves. 
It was growing too dark in the woods to see very 
clearly, although out in the open at the edge of the forest day¬ 
light still lingered; and what sort of creature made this dis¬ 
turbance it was hard to tell. Perhaps a squirrel, or some 
large bird going to roost for the night, was responsible for it; 
but there was something stealthy about the movements, sug¬ 
gesting that the creature might be trying to hide from an 
enemy. It seemed to be endeavoring to escape notice. All 
of a sudden through an opening in the foliage a face peeped 
out—the face of a man. Keenly he glanced in all directions; 
then, as though satisfied that there was no further need of 
precaution, he stepped boldly out upon one of the larger 
limbs of the tree; when it might be seen that he was, after 
all, not a man, but a boy. 

Long hair, roughly trimmed, hung down in heavy locks 
about his face, reaching almost to his shoulders, and every 
now and then he gave his head an impatient jerk, to throw 
it back from his eyes. Holding himself upright upon the 
tree-limb by grasping a bough, he peered frowningly down 
into the gathering dusk below. 

This boy might have been about twelve years old, and 
seemed strong and well built, with muscular arms and legs. 

[3] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


He wore a rough garment of skins, fastened in at the waist 
by means of a thong, and gathered up over the left shoulder 
by a sort of shoulder-strap. This garment hung skirt-fashion 
almost to the knees, leaving legs and arms free; and it could 
be seen, even in the dim light, that legs, arms and face, as well 
as that part of his upper body which was exposed, were all 
tanned to a deep brown. 

His feet were large, and he grasped the limb upon which 
he stood with long flexible toes. Holding by the tree with 
one hand, he clutched in the other, like a club, a dead branch 
which he had broken off when he took refuge in the tree from 
a fancied enemy. 

This boy’s name was Ruig. He lived in a camp about 
a mile away from the woods, near the river. He did not 
often venture quite so far away from home at nightfall, for 
there were a good many animals which came out then, and 
it was by no means safe for a grown man, even, to be out 
alone, to say nothing of a boy. But Ruig was very fond of 
hunting, and had followed up with his bone-tipped javelin 
some small game which led him to the edge of the woods 
before he knew it. It was just as he looked up, and realized 
that he was almost among the trees, that he received the 
fright which caused him to climb one of them for safety. 

This fright of Ruig’s had been brought about in a peculiar 
way. He had seen nothing alarming, nor had his ears detected 
any unusual sound in the distance. That there was some large 
animal, however, not far away, he was sure; for his keen 
sense of smell had caught on the light breeze which stirred 
the leaves above him an unmistakable odor. As Ruig, bend¬ 
ing down from his tree-limb, looked and listened, his nostrils 
wrinkled themselves as he tried again to detect the taint upon 
the air; but thus far he had not succeeded; and his fright 


AN ENEMY IN THE DARK 


began to give way to wonder and curiosity. He even debated 
for a moment whether to descend from his perch and get 
possession of his javelin, which he had dropped somewhere 
in the grass; but upon reflection he decided that it was not 
worth the risk, for the weapon was too small to be effective 
against any large animal; and besides, he was probably safe 
enough just by being in his tree—for none of the large ani¬ 
mals, with the exception of the bear and the tiger, could climb 
a tree even if they tried. The bear, Ruig knew, was of a 
peaceable disposition, and would generally mind its own busi¬ 
ness unless attacked, or when it had cubs with it; while the 
tiger, magnificent as he appeared with his striped flanks, was 
at heart a coward, always sneaking away and trying to escape; 
and would never be likely to take to a tree unless cornered. 

Thus Ruig argued himself out of his fears, although he 
still grasped his club, and strained all his senses to find out if 
he could what animal it was which was so near. 

There were not many of the larger animals which Ruig 
had himself seen; but his father and the other men had often 
described them, in their talks about hunting, as they sat 
around the camp-fire at night; and he had seen pictured 
representations of them many a time, drawn upon the rocks 
by the artists of the tribe, or carved and etched upon the 
weapons of the hunters themselves. There was no part of 
spear-head or harpoon, dart-thrower or baton of office, which 
had not its decorations, most spirited and true to life, showing 
the ibex, chamois, wild ox or reindeer—with now and then a 
pigeon or a hawk for variety. Ruig thus knew the cave-bear, 
with his thick muffling of heavy fur, and his awkward sham¬ 
bling gait; and the mean-looking hyena, with his bad-tempered 
face and his disproportionately high fore-shoulders. He knew 
the wolf, of course, and the giant deer, with his stately head 

[5] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


held high. He knew the saber-toothed tiger, with his terrible 
tusks; he had more than once come across the wild boar root¬ 
ing for acorns under the trees along the edge of the woods. 
But there were two great beasts which Ruig was eager to see 
in the flesh, yet which he scarcely hoped ever to lay eyes 
on—the mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros. These ani¬ 
mals were growing scarce, and with changes in the climate 
were continually migrating farther toward the north. Few of 
the hunters themselves, with the exception of some of the 
older men, had ever killed one of these beasts; for all such 
reasons Ruig was the more anxious to get one look at them, 
even in the distance; and now, as he bent over to spy through 
the foliage of his tree, it was with a mixture of anticipation 
and dread, which caused delicious shivers to travel up and 
down his spine. He hoped with all his might that one of these 
monsters would make its appearance, and pass close enough 
to his tree for him to see it plainly before it became too dark. 
He was morally certain that one or the other it must be, the 
scent of which had come to him on the breeze—for only so 
huge a beast could have so strong an odor. 

Ruig remembered now that he had noticed a sort of beaten 
path, or trail, among the trees. At the time, he had not given 
it much thought; but now, the idea came to him that this trail 
might mark the regular route of one of these monsters as it 
went to and fro, to its feeding-ground, or to some pool where 
it went to drink. Along this track it might come at any 
moment; and all at once there reached him again upon the 
breeze the scent of the great coarse body. As he strained his 
ears, he could faintly distinguish the heavy soft tread of the 
thing as it drew nearer and nearer his hiding place. Now 
he could make out a huge bulk moving among the trees, and 
looming larger every moment. Ruig’s heart pounded like a 


AN ENEMY IN THE DARK 


hammer, and he almost fell from his perch as he leaned 
breathlessly downward to get a good look at the gigantic 
beast. The mammoth! it was surely the mammoth! He could 
make out now the gleam of the great curling tusks. He could 
see the fat bunchy head, which gave the creature an inde¬ 
scribably foolish expression. The short powerful legs, with 
their splaying feet, supported the enormous bulk of the body 
like squat pillars under a mediaeval tower; and strange to say, 
although the ground shook under the weight of the beast, it 
stepped along the forest floor as lightly as an elk or a chamois. 
Nearer and nearer came the mammoth. Now it was right 
under the tree. It was a veritable mountain of flesh, clad in 
its heavy overcoat of wool, the longer hair on the outside 
hanging down like a fringe along the great flanks. Directly 
beneath Ruig’s branch the creature passed, and he stood glar¬ 
ing down upon it, scarcely able to believe his eyes. 

But after having gone a few steps past the tree, suddenly 
the mammoth stopped in its tracks. It swung its great head 
from side to side with an air of suspicion; it grumbled in its 
throat; it raised its trunk aloft with a snuffling noise. Ruig 
knew. The breeze which had previously brought its scent to 
him, now brought his scent to the mammoth; and it was both 
puzzled and alarmed. 

At once Ruig crept along his branch until he was close 
to the trunk of the tree, and then worked himself around it 
squirrel-fashion, until the bole was between him and the mam¬ 
moth. He then quickly climbed several feet higher, for he 
did not know the reach of the beast’s proboscis, and he had 
no wish to be plucked out of the branches like an apple, and 
then flattened into the earth under the knees of the enraged 
monster, like a hunter of whom he had heard. But for the 
present at least the mammoth was making no move. It stood 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


perfectly still, listening and looking. He could see its huge 
bulk against the twilight sky, for it had almost reached the 
open when it had been halted by the tell-tale scent. Perhaps 
it was planning to rush his tree, and try either to uproot it 
by its great weight, or to shake him out of it like a chestnut. 
He imagined its little angry eyes fixed upon him, for it had 
now turned around, facing in his direction. Breathlessly Ruig 
awaited its charge; but still the mammoth did not stir. It 
might have been rooted to the spot. Perhaps in that great 
chuckle-head there was a dull brain, in which ideas moved 
heavily; or perhaps there was a low cunning there, which 
would try to outwit the enemy, waiting for him to make the 
first move so as to betray his exact whereabouts. If that 
were it, Ruig could wait as long as the mammoth, for he 
too knew tricks which hunters use. If on the other hand the 
beast was merely stupid, there was even less cause for fear, 
as he would find a way to puzzle it, slipping away to leeward 
while it was snuffling for him up wind. 

But suddenly the mammoth gave an abrupt snort. It 
crashed away among the bushes as though it was making off— 
then stopped again. It uttered a loud trumpeting call which 
resounded through the woods. This might be a challenge; 
yet to Ruig’s ears there was in it a note of fear. Why should 
this huge beast, largest of living creatures, be afraid of any¬ 
thing? What could possibly harm it? Only one thing could 
Ruig think of which might give it cause for alarm. Arguing 
from his own experience, it might be that the mysterious and 
the unknown could strike terror to the heart of the mammoth 
as to that of other creatures, including man. Perhaps the beast 
had never before smelt the scent of a human being. Arrested 
by the novelty of the sensation, it had been held for a while 
by curiosity. As time passed, however, curiosity changed to 
[ 8 ] 



On The Watch 









AN ENEMY IN THE DARK 


fear, since the mammoth could neither see nor hear the crea¬ 
ture from which the strange scent came. 

A second time the mammoth uttered its loud trumpeting 
cry; and now there could be no room for doubt; for even as 
it sounded the warning note, the mammoth wheeled, and 
went thundering away with amazing speed toward the open 
prairie. 

Long after it had emerged from the forest, Ruig could 
hear its foot-beats on the hard ground until they finally died 
away in the distance. When he could no longer discern them, 
he slipped down from his tree, felt around in the grass at its 
foot until he found his javelin; scampered swiftly out beyond 
the forest edge; circled around a few times, sniffing the wind; 
and then darted off at full speed in spite of the darkness, as 
though he knew exactly where he was going. 

Ruig had smelt the wood-smoke from the village fires a 
mile away, and was making for home. 


[ 9 ] 





































RUIG AT HOME 













































CHAPTER II 
Ruig at Home 


R UIG’S home was a hut, one of perhaps twenty which 
made up the camp, built in an irregular group upon 
the prairie, and of various sizes and styles. Some 
were circular in shape, going up almost to a point, like an 
enormous beehive. These were covered with skins, upon a 
framework of saplings, the butts of which were firmly planted 
in the ground, while the tips were all brought together at the 
top, and fastened securely with a thong. 

Inside the hut, the earth was excavated to the depth of a 
couple of feet, the soil which had thus been removed being 
piled up outside around the base of the saplings, like a sort of 
low wall or breastwork, leaving one narrow opening in front 
at the entrance, while a trench running clear around next the 
breastwork carried off the drainage water. These dwellings 
were very cool and pleasant in summertime, while in winter 
they were cosy and comfortable except in the coldest months, 
when the family would move to the caves in the cliff back of 
the village until spring once more came round. 

Ruig’s home, however, was different from that which has 
just been described. It was square, not circular, in shape. 
The interior was dug out and the earth piled up around the 
outside as in the case of the beehive dwelling; but the frame¬ 
work upon which the skin covering was stretched was much 
more solid and workmanlike than that of the lodge of poles. 
In the center at both front and rear of the hut, a stout young 
tree was planted firmly in the ground, rising to the height of 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 

about six feet, each post having a crotch at the top so that a 
sapling could be laid across to form the ridgepole. Slanting 
up to this ridgepole from either side, their butts sunk in the 
earthen breastwork, other smaller saplings rested, about six 
inches apart, the whole structure exactly resembling the skele¬ 
ton of a barn roof. Saplings and ridgepole were lashed 
together with thongs, and the slanting surfaces covered with 
hides, while larger skins at front and rear served as curtains, 
which could be drawn aside or closed as occasion required. 

There was no fireplace or hearth in any of these huts; but 
outside in the open air a small fire was kept going; it being the 
duty of the women to see that there were always live embers 
in the ashes, which could be easily blown into a flame. 

Inside the hut which was Ruig’s home were rude shake- 
downs of rushes covered with skins, which served as beds for 
the family. Stubs had been purposely left on the posts at 
front and rear, upon which weapons and garments might be 
hung. Spears belonging to Ruig’s father leaned against one 
of the posts, and near by hung a skin bag or wallet, containing 
the fire-making implements always carried by the hunter, 
together with flint tools for repairing broken weapons, or for 
skinning animals which had been brought down in the chase. 
In this wallet were also spare arrowheads and javelin points. 
On one of the couches lay a beautifully carved dart-thrower; 
and near by on the floor stood a stone, rudely hollowed like a 
shallow bowl, holding a few spoonfuls of oil in which floated a 
wick of braided grasses—a primitive lamp which yielded a 
flickering and uncertain light. A similar stone, hollowed 
somewhat more deeply, with a stone pestle lying in it, was the 
mortar in which wild grain was ground. 

Hanging from the ridgepole of the hut was a second wallet, 
more carefully made than the hunter’s bag, and somewhat 

[ 14 ] 


RUIG AT HOME 


smaller in size. This contained the sewing materials of Ruig’s 
mother—fine strips of thong for thread; slender needles and 
pins of bone; sharp-pointed instruments of flint for piercing 
the needle’s eye; sharpening-stones on which to grind its 
point. The sewing-bag, it seemed, was also a vanity-bag— 
for it contained two or three shell necklaces, strung on thin 
cords of soft leather, as well as medallions and pendants of 
ivory, some of them nicely carved. 

When Ruig, after his adventure with the mammoth, came 
running home through the dark, guided by the smell of the 
wood-smoke from the village fires, he found his father at the 
entrance of the hut, watching for him. He made no comment 
when the boy appeared, but drawing aside the skin curtain 
motioned him to enter. Ruig did so; and by the smoky light 
of the lamp he saw his mother looking eagerly toward him. 
As he came in, she raised her arms in a gesture of relief, but 
did not speak. His father put out the lamp by pinching the 
wick with his fingers; and in a few moments, stretched on their 
couches of skins and rushes, all were sound asleep. 

It seemed to Ruig that he had only just closed his eyes 
when fresh air blowing in his face aroused him, and he dis¬ 
covered that it was already daylight. His father and mother 
were out; and when he looked through the doorway he could 
see the latter busily engaged upon the skin of some animal 
which his father had killed the previous day. This skin was 
tightly stretched by being pegged out on the ground, fur side 
down; and Ruig’s mother with a flint scraper was cleaning 
every morsel of flesh and fat from the hide to get it ready for 
curing. 

Breakfast was on. A chunk of meat from the animal to 
which the hide had once belonged, stuck on a twig, and roasted 
over the coals, was the entire bill of fare; but, followed by a 

[ 15 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


handful of berries from the nearest thicket, and washed down 
by a gulp of water from the spring, it did splendidly; and 
Ruig then stretched himself, and looked eagerly around for 
the other boys, that he might tell them of his adventure the 
evening before. 

The boys, however, had scattered upon various duties of 
their own, for in the camp no one might remain an idler. Some 
gathered firewood, some helped in the curing of the skins, 
some fetched fresh rushes from the river for the couches, or 
to repair the thatches of the huts; and not one of Ruig’s play¬ 
mates happened to be at hand at the moment. He therefore 
wandered over toward a group of men, his father among the 
number, who stood at a little distance, thinking that he might 
find a chance to tell them about seeing the mammoth in the 
forest the previous day. 

These men were all tall and strong, standing six feet or 
more in height, with fine chests and shoulders, having the 
muscles of arms and legs wonderfully developed. This was 
natural, for they lived always in the open air, and were occu¬ 
pied entirely in hunting. They planted no crops, and thus 
were not bent by the use of the hoe or the plough. Beside 
being fine physical specimens, these men had faces of great 
intelligence, with high foreheads and aquiline noses—some of 
them being actually handsome. 

Their clothing was like Ruig’s own—a short garment of 
skin belted in at the waist, leaving arms and legs free. Many 
wore ornaments about their necks—pendants of flint or ivory 
carved in various designs; and several had necklaces of the 
teeth of the elk and cave-bear. 

Ruig approached the hunters, and stood for a while listen¬ 
ing to their talk. When there was a silence, he ventured to 
relate his story of seeing the mammoth in the woods the eve- 
[ 16 ] 


RUIG AT HOME 


ning before. Immediately the hunters became interested, 
crowding around and asking questions; and later on his father 
had Ruig guide him to the place where he had found the 
trail, and spent some time in scouting over the ground, being 
very careful, however, not to step in the trail itself, as he had 
in mind a plan by means of which the great beast might be 
trapped later on, and he did not wish to arouse its suspicions 
by leaving traces which it would associate with the idea of 
danger. 

After a while the two went back to the camp, Ruig full of 
excitement as he thought of the coming hunt, and of the part 
which he himself might bear in it. 

The home life of the tribe was of the simplest kind. The 
great object of all the activities in which men, women and 
children alike engaged was the support of life itself, very little 
time being spent upon anything but hunting and fishing, the 
curing of skins for clothing against the coming of winter, and 
the manufacture of weapons for the chase, as well as the neces¬ 
sary tools for treating the skins, and shaping and carving the 
head and shaft of javelin and spear. 

Agriculture was unknown to the tribe, as wild fruits and 
berries were plentiful all about. No domestic animals were 
kept, although near by on the plains were wild horses and 
cattle by the thousand. There was not a pet in any of the 
huts—and this was strange, as boys and girls in any age of 
the world love animal companions, and will usually tease for 
them until they get them. But the feeling on this subject 
was, that it was poor economy to provide food for animals 
when human beings needed it more. 

It must not however be supposed that the camp life was 
all rough and stern, without recreations of any kind. One 
of the greatest diversions among the men and boys was compe- 

[ 17 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


tition in athletic sports; and several times a year a general 
field-day was held, with tests of all sorts designed to show the 
strength and skill of each member of the tribe, no one being 
exempt unless he were actually incapacitated by illness or 
injury. 

The women and girls too had contests of their own. These 
consisted of efforts to outdo one another in the curing and 
dressing of skins, so that the leather would be pliable and soft, 
and the fur bright and smooth. Jewelry of a certain sort was 
also manufactured; and this consisted of necklaces either of 
small shells, pierced and strung on a thin cord of sinew, or of 
the teeth of animals used in a similar way. These necklaces 
were usually finished off with a pendant, carved or etched 
with a design which varied with the skill and ingenuity of the 
maker. 

By far the most popular diversion of the tribe was this 
artistic industry of embellishing weapons and tools with rep¬ 
resentations of various forms of animal life. These were 
found on every surface which afforded even the smallest space 
for some kind of a picture, which was cut or carved in relief 
by means of delicate flint gravers and chisels—tools the mak¬ 
ing of which was in itself an art. Skill in this sort of work was 
well-nigh universal, the tribe having apparently a genuine gift 
for artistic expression. Figures of human beings were rarely 
attempted, and were much less natural than those of the ani¬ 
mals ; though now and then a little statue of a man or woman 
would be turned out which had considerable merit. For the 
most part, however, these efforts produced results which were 
caricatures, very fat and very ugly. 

Schools, of course, there were none; every boy was in¬ 
structed by his father, and every girl by her mother, in those 
things which it was necessary to know about life if one was to 
[ 18 ] 


RUIG AT HOME 


continue to live at all; how to fight the unkindness and cruelty 
of Nature; how to provide against drought and frost and 
storm; how to fight the beasts, matching skill and cunning 
against strength and ferocity; how to care for the physical 
body, that it might always be in top condition for the tests 
which at any moment it might be called upon to meet. Life 
in the tribe was an exceedingly practical affair, and every 
lesson was of an exceedingly practical character. This must 
needs be so, if men were to meet life on equal terms. The 
idler, the dreamer, the coward, was out of place in a world of 
conflict against hard facts; before long, he would cease to 
occupy any place at all in such a world; and so alertness and 
courage, resourcefulness and ingenuity, were the great quali¬ 
ties which it was first of all sought to teach the boys and girls. 
Upon these essentials all else must be based. 

As for Ruig, very early in life he had made up his mind 
to become as much like his father as he could, in every way. 
He admired him more than any other man in the tribe, 
although there were some who were more famous hunters 
than he, and had had more thrilling adventures. But his 
father, Ruig thought, had a certain poise and dignity which 
none of the others possessed. He was a quiet man, pondering 
a question for a good while before he ventured to express an 
opinion; but when he did speak, it was always with such 
directness and common sense as to carry conviction with it. 
He was one of the head-men, and thus was entitled to carry 
upon ceremonial occasions the mysterious crooked ivory baton, 
with its famous ibex carved in high relief upon the grip. He 
was very strong and very graceful—the ease and simplicity of 
his motions in handling axe or spear causing him to appear 
almost careless, yet few could equal him in the use of either 
weapon, whether in play or in earnest. Ruig idolized his 
[ 19 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


father; and his father, in turn, thought the world of him, and 
only hoped, as did Ruig himself, that the boy might thor¬ 
oughly learn all the lessons which he wanted to teach him. 
Whether this hope was realized, will be seen as the story 
goes on. 


[ 20 ] 


FLINT AND BONE 



















CHAPTER III 
Flint and Bone 


G RAUM was an old man living in one of the huts on 
the outskirts of the camp, who was very expert in the 
making of weapons, and had a collection of them 
which Ruig and the other boys were never tired of looking 
over. Graum could remember farther back than any one else, 
and had a fund of traditions and stories extending back farther 
still, which, like most old people, he was fond of telling when¬ 
ever he could find an audience. Such an audience he could 
always be sure of among the boys, who would sit around on the 
floor of the hut, listening open-mouthed to the old man’s tales, 
and passing from hand to hand the various weapons and tools, 
while Graum explained their uses. 

He would show them, too, the deep scars on his shoulders 
and back made by the claws of a cave-bear with which he had 
once had a battle; and he would relate the story of the great 
ibex hunt on the glacier, when several of his companions died 
from exposure, while he himself crawled back to camp with 
both feet frozen, so that they had to be cut off at the ankle- 
joint, and the stumps seared with red-hot stones to prevent 
him from bleeding to death. This, of course, put an end to 
Graum’s hunting; but he became the official maker of wea¬ 
pons for the hunters; and it would have been very hard 
indeed for the tribe to get along without him. 

One day Ruig, with some of the other boys, was paying 
Graum a visit, and the old man seemed especially willing to 
talk to them and tell them stories. Long ago, he said, before 
[ 23 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


the race to which they belonged had come into that region, 
it had been inhabited by another people, less strong and less 
intelligent, who had gradually given way before the advance 
of the newcomers. This other people had flint weapons only, 
although there might have been some which were made of 
wood, such as swords and lances, the points of which had been 
hardened in the fire. But ivory and bone, so largely used by 
the tribe to which they themselves belonged, these old-time 
people knew nothing of. 

It would be interesting, said Graum, if it could be known 
what the first weapon was which any man ever used, and 
how he came to use it. Probably, the old man went on to 
say, the first weapons of all were the naked hands, which 
were used to choke an opponent, or to break his limbs by 
bending or twisting them; while the clenched fist served as a 
club. Suddenly one day some primitive man got hold of the 
branch of a tree which broke off in his hand as he was climb¬ 
ing, and he discovered that with this he could strike a terrific 
blow by swinging it against the head of an enemy. This club 
he after a while improved by picking out a branch or a long 
root with a bunch or knob at the end of it. Sometimes he 
may have thrown this club, instead of striking with it, when he 
did not wish to wait for the animal or the man which was 
his enemy to get to close quarters. 

When using his fist as a hammer, this primitive man hit 
upon the idea of grasping in his palm a stone, which not only 
added weight to his blow, but could actually crack a skull, 
whereas with his fist alone he could only stun at the most. 
Next he made a jagged edge on the stone, rendering it more 
deadly still; and this, too, he used at times as a missile, learn¬ 
ing by means of long practice to hurl it with terrific force and 
precision. 


[ 24 ] 


FLINT AND BONE 


Effective as such weapons were, however, and great as 
the advantage was with the man who used them over the other 
man who knew nothing of them, still they were very rude and 
clumsy. There was nothing yet like a knife, a spear, or a 
sword. These, when first invented, were no doubt of wood, 
and were thus fragile and unreliable; but still, they gave the 
man something with which he could not merely pound and 
stun his enemy, but slash and stab him; and this was a great 
step in advance in the business of self-defence and of attack. 

It must have happened one day, continued Graum, that 
a man of those early times picked up a slab of flint, which, 
when he struck upon it with another stone, split apart, as flint 
will do, into a long, flat flake. By again striking this, he split 
off still more of it, until the man held in his hand a long, nar¬ 
row piece of stone, sharp on the edges, and easily rubbed to 
a needle-point at the end—the first flint weapon ever made. 
This was a discovery of the very greatest importance; it pro¬ 
vided the man with a weapon which would hold an edge or 
a point, as the wooden swords and lances would not do; and 
which, in addition, was almost indestructible, while the hills 
and river-beds abounded in material. 

Graum produced from his collection some specimens of 
very early flint knives, dug up in an ancient hunting camp 
several miles from the village; and showed the boys how 
rude the construction was. He then brought out others made 
in a much later period—beautifully chipped and trimmed, and 
many of them polished until they were as smooth as ivory. 
These, strange to say, were much more carefully chipped 
and shaped than any which the boys had seen in use in their 
own village, made by their own hunters, or even by old Graum 
himself, who was certainly no bungler in this kind of work; 
and the boys wondered why this was the case. Graum was 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


fond of teasing once in a while, and so he kept them guessing 
about this, while he pretended to be busy in various ways 
about the hut; but he finally explained the puzzle as follows. 

In the days when the only material used for weapons was 
flint, which lasted a long time, the same knife or dagger 
being possibly used by a hunter all his life, it became the 
custom to take great pains in the shaping and trimming of the 
weapons, so as to make them as symmetrical and perfect as 
possible. In the present, Graum pointed out, when bone and 
ivory, materials much more easily worked than flint, were 
almost exclusively used in the manufacture of spears and 
javelins, still there were some flint ones; but with the growing 
attention which was being paid to the more tractable materials, 
less and less care was given to the flint, and more and more 
to the articles of ivory, bone and horn. Of course, there must 
be a great many flint tools used in cutting and carving these; 
and Graum had in the hut an immense variety of chisels, 
planers, trimmers and drills, for every conceivable use. He 
possessed also a large assortment of articles of all kinds which 
could be made out of bone and ivory—cups of reindeer horn, 
chiefs’ batons for ceremonial occasions, dart-throwers wonder¬ 
fully carved with figures of animals, harpoon, javelin and 
lance-heads without number. There were also medallions 
to be worn on necklaces, and tiny bird-darts not much larger 
than a knitting-needle; but most wonderful of all were some 
little figures of antelopes and horses, almost incredibly per¬ 
fect, carved from the ivory of a mammoth’s tusk. 

The implements used in this work of carving were very 
specially made of flint, and Graum kept them with great care 
in a wallet lined with little compartments, where each deli¬ 
cate tool nestled by itself in a pocket of soft leather, lest its 
sharp edge or point become dulled. 

[ 26 ] 


FLINT AND BONE 


Ruig asked about these earlier tribes of which Graum 
had spoken, and wanted to know how long ago it was that they 
had lived in this neighborhood, but Graum could not give any 
definite information. He told the boys, however, something 
more about the old hunting camp where he had found the 
ancient flint weapons, and this showed to a certain degree how 
old they must be. 

In this camp, Graum said, which had evidently been used 
by many successive generations of hunters, until the game, 
once so plentiful in the vicinity, had either been destroyed or 
finally frightened away, there could be seen remains of at 
least six different camps, one on top of the other, each with its 
stone hearths showing where the fireplaces had been, together 
with many articles such as spear and arrow heads, with a 
few human skeletons, and very many animal bones scattered 
through the layers of earth which had gradually through cen¬ 
turies of time accumulated above the ruins. When Graum 
was a young man, he with some others had once camped in 
this region, and had spent a number of days in digging among 
the ancient mounds which marked the site of the camp, for the 
sake of satisfying their curiosity; and they had gone to the 
depth of three spears’ lengths before giving up, while even 
then they had not reached bottom. How much lower down 
they might have discovered relics, it was impossible to say; 
but they had penetrated deep enough to prove that the camp 
was very, very old indeed. At the lowest level which they 
had reached they had found a skeleton of some animal not 
recognized by any of the hunters—evidently belonging to a 
species which had become extinct before the memory of any 
man now living. 

There was one interesting thing to which Graum called 
the attention of the boys, and that was, that before bone and 
[ 27 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


ivory came into use for weapons and utensils, there was little 
or no evidence that attempts had been made by the earlier 
peoples to beautify the articles which they manufactured— 
artistic talent being apparently unknown. Flint, of course, 
was too hard to lend itself to any such effort, and no doubt 
this was the chief explanation of the fact; and yet, to bring the 
art of etching and carving to its present point of perfection 
must have required an immensely long time. This thought 
the old hunter left with the boys to work out for themselves. 

Before the visit came to a close, however, old Graum took 
it upon himself to unfold a bit of prophecy. 

A time would come, said he, when ivory and bone would 
in turn be supplanted by some new material, just as they had 
taken the place of flint; and a way would be found of throwing 
darts much farther, and with much greater accuracy, than was 
the case now, even with the aid of the dart-thrower; just as 
the dart-thrower was an advance upon the unaided human 
arm. When this method should be discovered, added Graum, 
the hunters could go out boldly against even the largest beasts 
and, safe themselves, could attack them from a distance, in¬ 
stead of as now imperiling their lives, or being obliged to have 
recourse to the uncertain devices of traps and deadfalls. 

All this the boys took in; and as they started homeward, 
each imagined himself the lucky inventor of this new and 
wonderful weapon of which the old hunter had spoken. 

That they were all mistaken, the coming days were to 
reveal; and they did not guess how soon. 


OUTWITTING THE STRONG 



























CHAPTER IV 
Outwitting the Strong 


N a certain morning Ruig’s father with a dozen other 



men set out for the place where Ruig had had his 


evening adventure in the tree, and had seen the mam¬ 
moth pass along what appeared to be a regular trail through 
the woods. 

All of the men were fully armed with their strongest 
spears, and had axes in their belts and throwing-stones in their 
pouches. Even Ruig carried his set of javelins. But in addi¬ 
tion, several of the hunters had with them broad wooden 
spades, rudely formed from slabs split out of a fallen tree; 
while two others bore on their shoulders great rolls of hide, 
the purpose of which it was hard to guess. Ruig at any rate 
wondered what they were for, but when he asked his father 
about them, the hunter only smiled, and advised him to wait 
and see. 

On approaching the edge of the woods, the company 
halted, while two of the most skilful trackers went forward 
to investigate. They were gone for some time, and while 
waiting, Ruig’s father explained to him the plan which they 
had in mind. 

They were after the mammoth, he said, which apparently 
had a home, or at any rate a feeding-ground, not far away, 
and certain places where it went from time to time, often 
enough to wear the trail through the grass and shrubbery. 
The trackers had gone ahead to discover whether there were 
any signs that the beast had recently been in the neighbor¬ 


ly] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


hood; they could tell by the condition of the trail, and by such 
indications as freshly broken twigs, or branches from which 
the mammoth had plucked the leaves as he went along. If the 
report was that he had passed by within half a day at the 
outside, or within a shorter period, the present plan would be 
given up; to carry it out would take one entire day at least; 
and the chances would be that the mammoth might return 
before their preparations were completed, and so render them 
useless, for he would take alarm from the signs of their pres¬ 
ence, and quit the neighborhood for good. Should the hunters 
on the contrary find the trail cold, they would assume that the 
great beast was not in the immediate vicinity, and would take 
a chance on having time to complete their job before he came 
back. To be sure, he might not return for some time; but he 
almost certainly would do so eventually, for it was the habit 
of all animals to go back to old feeding-grounds, just as people 
like to revisit familiar places, perhaps for no better reason 
than that they are familiar. But whether it was a week or a 
month from now, the plan would still be good; and the mam¬ 
moth would find it so, to his sorrow. 

The trackers now returned and reported that there were 
no signs of the recent presence of the great creature, and 
accordingly the whole party went on to the edge of the woods 
where the trail emerged from the trees. It was evident that no 
animal had passed this way for some time, as here and there 
along the trail there were footprints in the soft ground in 
which water was standing, showing that they must be old, as 
no rain had fallen for several days, and this moisture had been 
kept from evaporation by the shade of the trees. The hunters 
advanced a little way into the woods, looking for a place suit¬ 
able for their purpose. They walked on either side of the 
trail, and at a little distance from it, treading as carefully as 
[ 32 ] 


OUTWITTING THE STRONG 


possible so as to leave no traces. Finally they came to a place 
where the trail passed between two great trees, with thick 
underbrush on both sides, and here the order was given to 
halt. The hunters laid aside their weapons, all but two, who 
were posted as sentries up and down the trail; the men who 
carried the rolls of hide spread them out flat upon the ground, 
with stones at the edge to keep them open, and the wooden 
spades now explained their presence as, marking out a huge 
circle across the center of which the trail directly passed, the 
men began to dig, throwing the soft earth carefully upon the 
hides, which were from time to time lifted and carried to some 
distance, the earth being scattered among the bushes out of 
sight. 

Ruig could not for the life of him imagine what was 
going on; and his father watched him for some minutes with 
a smile of amusement at his perplexity, before he explained. 

There were some animals, he said, which could be over¬ 
come by means of superior strength and courage, and attacked 
with success by javelin and spear, or even with the throwing- 
stone. But the mammoth was too huge, his heavy coat of 
hair and wool, and the thickness of his hide, making him 
almost invulnerable to weapons which were deadly to any 
other animal, except perhaps the woolly rhinoceros. The 
mammoth, therefore, must be overcome by cunning, instead 
of strength; and the way in which they were going about it 
was one method in which this was to be accomplished. 

The men would dig a deep pit to serve as a trap; they 
would cover it with brush and twigs, and would scatter a light 
coating of earth and dead leaves over it so as to make it look 
exactly like the rest of the trail; and the mammoth, coming 
unsuspectingly along some evening, would crash through into 
the pit, whence he would struggle in vain to escape, while the 

[ 33 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 

hunters from the safe ground above despatched him with their 
spears. 

Sometimes, Ruig’s father went on to say, the sides of the 
pit would be vertical, a great pointed stake being planted 
firmly at the bottom; or there might be additional stakes in 
the sides of the pit, slanting upward at an acute angle, so that 
the unlucky mammoth would impale himself upon these in his 
fall, and die from loss of blood. But this style of trap took 
longer to prepare than that which the men were now dig¬ 
ging, while the present plan was equally good. Ruig, as he 
watched operations, soon caught the idea. The sides of the 
pit sloped inward toward the center as the digging progressed. 
At the bottom they came to a point, so that the hole was in the 
shape of a cone turned upside down. The feet of the trapped 
mammoth would all four be wedged together at the bottom of 
the conical pit, and he would be absolutely helpless, the vic¬ 
tim of his own immense weight, which crushed his legs under 
him as in a vise. 

The soil here was loose, and the work went on rapidly. 
Load after load of earth was carried away and disposed of. 
The pit at last took its completed shape. Slender poles were 
then laid across the opening, these in turn were covered with 
twigs and brush; and last of all, came the final coating of earth 
and leaves. The hides were then rolled up, all traces of the 
work being removed by the experienced hunters; and when 
Ruig looked again for the trap, had it not been for the two big 
trees between which he knew it to be situated, he found it 
impossible to believe that the trail had ever been disturbed. 
The mammoth was as good as caught; it was only a question 
of time. 

As the party sat resting for a while before starting for 
home, Ruig’s father reminded him that life was one continual 
[ 34 ] 


OUTWITTING THE STRONG 


struggle for survival between men and animals, as well as 
between animals themselves. Those which did survive would 
not necessarily be the strongest and fiercest, but those which 
were wisest and most cunning, thus being able to match craft 
against strength, as they were doing now in case of the mam¬ 
moth. Best of all would be strength combined with cun¬ 
ning, and guided by intelligence. Some animals possessed 
this combination in a slight degree, but they did not appear to 
be able to develop this and add to it. Man alone could do 
this. For such reasons, a time would come when man would 
overcome all the beasts, and perhaps even compel them to 
work for him, and help him carry out his plans. The wild 
horses and the wild cattle, now thought of as game simply to 
be hunted and killed for their flesh and their hides, might 
some day become tamed, and be the servants of man. Even 
the wolf and the boar might be domesticated: who could tell? 
Years and years and years must pass before this could become 
true; but true it would nevertheless be; because man’s intel¬ 
ligence and imagination would outdo the strength and cun¬ 
ning of all the other animals put together. 

This gave Ruig quite a lot to think about in days to come. 
Just now, however, he was thinking of the unsuspecting mam¬ 
moth, and the fate which lay in store for him along the forest 
trail. 

Even as his father ceased speaking, and the hunters stood 
up and stretched themselves, gathering together their weapons 
and tools preparatory to starting for home, all paused in what 
they were doing, and turned their heads in the direction of 
the prairie, where the trail emerged from the woods. They 
became as though petrified in the act of listening, tor a few 
moments nothing was heard; then there came plainly to their 
ears a sound: the sound of dull regular heavy footsteps upon 
[ 35 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


soft ground, distinguishable against the silence of the forest, 
and felt almost as much as heard, for the very earth seemed to 
vibrate like a vast drum under the tread of the mammoth com¬ 
ing along the trail. 

Swiftly the trained hunters took cover, disappearing with¬ 
out a sound behind trees and shrubs. At the first suspicion 
of danger, Ruig’s father had seized him by the arm, and the 
two lay side by side behind a low ledge of rock cropping out 
among the bushes, through a screen of which they could spy 
without danger of exposing themselves. 

For a few moments the sound of the mammoth’s approach 
ceased again; but it was soon resumed, and became more dis¬ 
tinct as the great beast drew nearer and nearer the fatal spot 
where the trap was hidden. Ruig’s heart was pounding as it 
had pounded only a few nights ago, when, concealed among 
the foliage of his tree, he had waited for his first glimpse of 
this very creature—for that it was the very same he must 
believe. 

Nearer and nearer came the plodding tread of the mon¬ 
ster. Soon they could make him out—the gently swaying 
trunk between the arching tusks; the ears nervously twitching 
to and fro, whether from the habit of ceaseless listening, or for 
the purpose of driving away the flies; they could see the fat 
ugly head, the little pig eyes gleaming as they turned hither 
and thither. The wind was right for the concealed hunters; 
the mammoth could have no intimation whatever of their 
presence. Steadily he lurched along, making good headway 
for so clumsy seeming a beast. Steadily he approached the 
hidden death. He was almost upon it, on its very edge, when 
suddenly he halted. Had he scented danger? Was there 
some trace of the digging which the hunters had forgotten to 
conceal? The mammoth appeared to be considering some 


OUTWITTING THE STRONG 


question of importance, as he stood there looking straight 
ahead of him up the forest path. Then all at once he started 
forward. One step—another—and then with a great crash of 
splintered saplings, and amid a cloud of flying dust, with a 
shrill scream of rage and fear, the immense body of the un¬ 
lucky beast plunged downward into the conical pit, his legs 
wedged together beneath him, one splendid tusk snapped off at 
the root, only the writhing trunk still free. 

With shouts of triumph the hunters came springing out of 
their hiding-places. One in his eagerness came too near, and 
was snatched and dashed to death against the ground. Before 
the deadly trunk could loosen its grasp, it was slashed in two 
by a blow from a flint knife; and Ruig’s father, leaping down 
upon the huge woolly back, drove his keen blade through fat 
and hide and spine just behind the skull. The mammoth 
shivered, and became still. 

Sadly the hunters laid the body of their dead comrade 
upon one of the hides which they had brought with them, and 
covered him with a layer of green branches. He had been a 
young man of great promise, only recently initiated into the 
tribe; and no doubt it was his eagerness to distinguish him¬ 
self which had brought him so rashly within reach of the 
deadly trunk. Slowly the party started homeward, after lay¬ 
ing again across the pit a quantity of saplings and brush, 
weighted with stones to protect the carcass from wolves and 
hyenas. Tomorrow they would return and cut it up as best 
they could, its position in the pit rendering this rather a diffi¬ 
cult task. But at any rate, Ruig’s mammoth, as he proudly 
called it, would furnish the village with meat for some days 
to come. 


[37] 















































HUTH THE CUNNING ONE 









CHAPTER V 
Huth the Cunning One 

T HREE or four times a year the men of the camp organ¬ 
ized a sort of field-day for contests of various kinds, 
all of them, however, connected with hunting, and 
none of them sports pure and simple; for the very existence 
of these men depended upon the hunter’s skill, and proficiency 
in the use of the various weapons was the price of life for 
each and every one of them. 

Shortly after the visit of the boys to the hut of old Graum, 
when he prophesied that some time a new and better hunting 
weapon would be invented, the day arrived for one of these 
contests; and every one in the village, men and women, girls 
and boys, was required to be on hand. The women and girls, 
of course, stayed in the background; but the boys were very 
much in evidence, for they were continually being trained in 
the use of weapons, and indeed spent hours every day in prac¬ 
tice, which, under penalty of severe punishment, they were 
never permitted to shirk. At these contests there were special 
events for the boys, at which excitement ran fully as high as at 
the efforts of the men—for the boys had keen rivalry among 
themselves, and the men for their part kept shrewd eyes on 
them to see which ones exhibited special aptitude and skill in 
the use of the various weapons, as well as swiftness and 
endurance in the foot-races, which always occupied a con¬ 
spicuous place on the program of the day. There were no 
prizes for the winners—and as far as the boys were concerned, 
none were needed; if they might receive an approving nod 

[ 41 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


or a pat on the shoulder from one of the famous hunters, their 
cup of glory was full. 

On this particular occasion, Ruig’s father was in charge 
of the arrangements for the contests; and he organized the 
various events in order, beginning with the simpler ones, and 
going on to those requiring greater strength or a higher degree 
of skill, so that the incompetents might be gradually weeded 
out, and the interest become keener as the day advanced. 

The grounds where the trials took place were on the level 
prairie just outside the village. A blazed tree at some distance 
showed the turning-point for the foot-races. The men of the 
tribe were famous runners, and many times life depended as 
much upon speed as upon skill with a weapon, especially 
when a wounded rhinoceros was in question; for this animal, 
in spite of his apparently clumsy build, was astonishingly 
swift, and besides could follow the scent like a bloodhound. 

In another part of the course, a stump was the mark for 
the throwing-stones, while another tree served as target for 
javelins and darts. 

Ruig’s father had lined up the contestants in two groups, 
pretty evenly divided as to expertness and strength; and there 
were to be not only individual winners, but team winners as 
well, points being scored for the success of each member of 
a team, just as is done in similar contests today. 

First upon the program was the competition with the 
throwing-stone. Every one made a trial at this, for as has 
been said, this was almost the oldest of weapons, and one to 
which every man had been accustomed from infancy, for boys 
will throw stones before they can walk; and constant prac¬ 
tice with a regular missile like this makes one a deadly shot. 

One by one the contestants stepped to the line, eyed the 
distant mark, balanced the stone somewhat as a modern pitcher 
[ 42 ] 


HUTH THE CUNNING ONE 


balances a baseball, and then with one swift step forward 
delivered the stone at the stump, making eye, hand and foot 
coordinate as one. Nearly every cast landed near the mark. 
Half a dozen struck it. And two stuck fast in the stump, the 
jagged points of the flint penetrating deep into the wood. 

Some of the casts were direct, going in a straight line 
from hand to mark; but the hunters who had best control 
made the stone, heavy as it was, curve and sail, turning in a 
wide sweep to dart in the last minute at the target. 

The boys all had a chance at the stone-throwing. None 
of them was strong enough to penetrate the wood with his 
cast; but there were several who could throw a considerable 
curve; and Ruig himself had the satisfaction of seeing two 
out of his three tries land in the dirt at the very foot of the 
stump. 

Old Graum was squatting on the ground at the edge of the 
course, his injury preventing him from being any longer a 
contestant, though his arm was still vigorous and his eye 
keen. He watched every move of the men and of the boys as 
well, grunting approval or disapproval, and noting for future 
reference many a point from which later on some man or boy 
would be sure to hear. 

After the stone-thro wing came the javelin-casting—first 
with the hand only, then with the aid of the throwing-stick. 
This was about two feet in length, having at one end a socket 
in which rested the butt of the javelin, its shaft lying in a 
groove along the stick. This arrangement gave an artificial 
length to the thrower’s arm, resulting in a much longer throw, 
the groove along which the weapon lay helping it to fly 
straight. This was a very pretty exhibition, and points were 
about evenly divided between the two teams. But as usual, 
the chief interest of the day lay in the foot-races, for there is 
[ 43 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


something fascinating about the movement of a living body 
which is never found in any competition of a different sort. 

In the foot-races, three men stood out as favorites. The 
layout of this was about two hundred and fifty yards to the 
blazed tree, which must be circled by the runner, then back 
in a parallel course to the starting-line, which was also the 
finish-line. Huth, first of the three favorites, was a rather 
slender graceful fellow, but having the heavy limbs of the 
practiced runner. He had won the race on the last two 
occasions, and stood, therefore, a good chance of making it 
three. 

Narg, the second favorite, was the direct opposite of 
Huth in every way, for beside being of more massive build, he 
was as awkward as the other was graceful. When Huth 
bounded over the course like an antelope, Narg charged along 
like a rhinoceros; and like the latter covered the ground at 
an astonishing rate. It was going to be a pretty contest 
between these two; for Dourm, the third favorite, while run¬ 
ning in beautiful form, had never won a race in his life, though 
he had several times secured second or third place. 

Twenty runners were finally lined up along the starting¬ 
line, their bodies bending forward, hands clenched at their 
sides, eyes intently fixed on the starter, who was to drop his 
baton as the signal. Of the twenty, Huth alone rested on 
toes and fingers like a modern sprinter. At the signal all were 
off like a pack of hounds; but before the tree was reached, the 
three favorites had made their way to the front. Narg was 
first to circle the mark; Dourm flashed around it directly after 
him; while to the disappointment of the spectators, Huth 
seemed to be running sluggishly, as though out of condition. 
He was, however, only a second behind Dourm in rounding the 
tree; and then the real race began. Narg thundered down 
the track like a whirlwind, dust and leaves flying from 
[ 44 ] 


HUTH THE CUNNING ONE 


beneath his pounding feet. Dourm, a little to the side, and 
running like a beautiful machine, kept right at Narg’s shoul¬ 
der; while Huth was on the other side, still farther to the 
rear. Like the practiced runner that he was, he was allowing 
the others to make the pace, while at the last moment he 
would call on his reserves, and as so often before, pass them 
like a streak of light. 

On this occasion, however, something went wrong with 
his calculations. Just as he tautened nerve and muscle for 
the supreme effort, to the amazement of every one, Dourm, 
who up to now had been anchored at Narg’s huge shoulder, 
but unable as it seemed to gain an inch upon the flying 
giant, let out from somewhere one more link of speed, and 
flashed over the line a winner, while Huth and Narg made it 
neck and neck for second place. 

Narg, as soon as he could get his breath, roared with 
laughter, as though he considered his defeat a huge joke. But 
Huth, although he tried to smile, felt his disappointment 
keenly and, while the boys were having their javelin contest, 
disappeared among the huts. Graum was the only one who 
saw him go; and the old hunter watched with a little anxiety 
until he reappeared. Huth came after a while and stood 
behind the line of spectators. In his hand he had something 
resembling a length of sapling with a cord hanging from it, 
while in his belt were half a dozen darts. Graum studied this 
apparatus with interest, but could make nothing out of it, and 
after a moment he gave it up, and turned his attention to the 
boys and their contest. 

A prophecy of Graum was about to be fulfilled. Just as 
the final event of the day had been decided and the crowd was 
beginning to disperse, Huth spoke to Ruig’s father, who 
clapped his hands for attention, and made announcement that 
Huth had something which he wished to show the hunters. 
[ 45 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


Huth stepped out before the crowd where all could see him. 
He held up before him the piece of sapling, which was about 
four feet long, and had been shaved down so that it tapered 
somewhat toward the ends. To one tip of the sapling was 
fastened a stout twisted thong of reindeer hide, a little shorter 
than the sapling, with a loop in its free end. Resting the 
sapling on the ground and bracing it against his foot, Huth 
bent it over slowly until he could slip the loop into a notch in 
the other end of the sapling. This kept it bent, and the tight 
cord hummed as Huth plucked it with his thumb. He now 
held this affair upright in front of him with his left hand, 
grasping it about midway, with the cord toward him. He 
drew from his belt a dart, tipped with an ivory point, and 
notched at the other end. This notch he fitted to the cord; 
and still holding it with thumb and fingers, he extended his 
left arm to its full stretch, drew back the other hand until 
the sapling bent almost to a half-circle, then suddenly released 
it. A whirring sound was heard. The dart flashed through 
the air too swiftly for the eye to follow it, and quivered in the 
blazed tree at the end of the course. 

With open mouths the hunters stood staring—at the tree, 
at Huth, at the strange implement in his hand, at one another. 
A great thought suddenly dawned upon their minds, just as 
old Graum, rising in his excitement to his footless stumps, 
voiced what was manifest to all: that here began a new epoch 
in the warfare of man against the beasts of the earth; death 
dealt from a distance, which the beasts could neither foresee 
nor avoid; safety for the hunter, a lessening of the number of 
human tragedies; and a long step forward toward eventual 
peace from the endless struggle to survive. 

Revolving this great idea in their minds, the men and 
women dispersed to their huts; and the field-day was over. 
[ 46 ] 


THE PACK 


0 





CHAPTER VI 
The Pack 

R UIG had thought a good deal about the habits of the 
different animals, not only as he himself had been 
able to observe them, but as he had learned about 
them from the stories of the hunters as well. Some animals, 
he knew, were found in pairs. Some seemed always to run 
alone. But most of them traveled in larger or smaller groups, 
as though they loved company, being in this respect very much 
like people, who always seemed to live in groups of their own. 
Ruig asked Graum about this one day; and the old hunter 
explained it to him in this fashion. 

Some animals, said he, are by nature timid and peaceable, 
while others again are aggressive and bold. Nearly all of those 
which live upon vegetable food belong to the former class, the 
cattle, the deer, the horses, and so on; while those that live on 
flesh, such as the tiger, the hyena, and the wolf, are cunning, 
cruel, and savage. 

One curious thing there was to be noted—to Ruig this 
was a new idea—and that was, that the bear, commonly 
thought of as a beast of prey, is really a very domestic, good- 
natured creature, living mostly upon berries and fruits, with 
a childish fondness for wild honey, which it loves to dig out 
of the hollow stumps where the bees have stored it away. 

More remarkable than this, however, was the fact that the 
woolly rhinoceros and the mammoth, for all their huge bulk, 
and their formidable horns and tusks, did not live upon flesh, 
but upon grass, herbs, leaves, and the tender roots of water- 
[ 49 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


plants, which they found along the margin of the swamps, or 
on the river-bank. So it was that the biggest and fiercest 
appearing beasts were not necessarily the most dangerous; and 
this same thing was true, added Graum, with a sly grin, of 
men and boys as well. 

There are bullies and cowards among the animals as there 
are among people; and they can be handled in the same way 
wherever you find them. 

Now those animals which went in herds, like the deer, 
said the old hunter, or in bands and packs, like the hyenas and 
wolves, always did so for a good reason—a reason of defense 
or a reason of offense. The deer, for example, timid by nature, 
and singly liable to fall an easy prey to wolves or tigers, can 
at times put up a stiff defense by gathering in a close group, 
horns outward, so as to show an armed circle in every direc¬ 
tion. Graum had seen wolves, made desperate by hunger, 
make repeated attempts to break such a defense, but in vain, 
finding the sharp antlers of a buck presented against every 
leap, and slinking away at last into the woods, leaving the 
bodies of a considerable number upon the snow. Deer, of 
course, usually depend for safety upon their fleetness of foot, 
and when feeding always have their sentries out to warn them 
of the approach of danger; but in winter, when the snow is 
deep, and especially when it is coated with crust, through 
which their sharp hoofs penetrate, while the spreading paws of 
the wolf give him a foothold, the timid deer, by acting coura¬ 
geously together, seeming for the time to change their nature, 
can beat off with success their more savage enemy. 

The wolves, however, went on Graum, travel in packs not 
for purposes of defense, but for purposes of attack, and 
because numbers here can often accomplish what otherwise 
would be impossible. A pack of wolves will surround and 
[ 50 ] 



The Corning of 'The Pack 






















THE PACK 


worry a bison or an elk by charging at him from all sides at 
once, thus compelling him to turn continually in one direction 
and then in another until they have tired him out, and can 
finally all rush in and pull him down. It is only rarely that 
any wolf is able to make a kill alone, unless the victim is 
either very young or very old, though now and then one is 
found strong enough and fleet enough to pull down a cow or 
an elk all by himself. 

The old hunter paused for a few moments with a reflective 
air, and then went on. 

People, said he, have both deer reasons and wolf reasons 
for many of the things which they do. For example, instead 
of scattering singly over the prairie and through the woods, 
and living each one by himself, and for himself, they gather in 
camps and villages, both for purposes of offense and pur¬ 
poses of defense. A company acting together can defend 
themselves better against an attack than can the same number 
of individuals acting each for himself. They can form a plan 
upon which all can act at once, and they can help each other 
when any one happens to be hard pressed. A smaller number 
of men acting in concert can usually give a good account of 
themselves against a much larger number who have no disci¬ 
pline and no plan. 

And then when a hunt is on, the wolf tactics come into 
play. What could one man do, for example, in attacking a 
mammoth, or a woolly rhinoceros? He might, to be sure, suc¬ 
ceed in landing a javelin or two in the thick hide; but it 
would require a good deal more than that to bring the creature 
down, even if he were to stand still and offer himself as a 
target—which was exceedingly unlikely to happen. The 
hunter would be lucky if he did not find the tables turned, and 
himself the hunted. He might, it is true, by dint of immense 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


labor, dig a pit or construct a trap to snare the great beast; but 
no one man would even dream of attempting it. Acting 
together, however, twenty men can go against a mammoth 
with all confidence of success. They can run him and worry 
him, surround him and tease him and enrage him, until at last 
they wear him out; or they may maneuver him into a swamp, 
where his great weight will mire him, and make him an easy 
prey for their spears. Or by working together they can dig 
one of the great pits, as had been done by Ruig’s father and his 
companions just recently, into which the great beast may 
unsuspectingly tumble, to be dispatched at leisure. 

These were wolf methods, Graum said—and men had 
learned them by observation of the animals themselves, a 
thing which one need never be ashamed of doing if he can 
himself profit by it. 

Ever and ever so long ago, the old hunter went on to say, 
when men were fewer than now, as well as wilder and more 
savage, the custom was for each man to be suspicious of every 
other man, looking on him as an interloper and an enemy, to 
be driven off the hunting grounds at least, and killed if that 
were possible. But one day perhaps it happened that two of 
these men found themselves exposed to a common danger. 
A boar attacked them, or perhaps a bison charged them, and 
each one had to help the other to prevent the beast from kill¬ 
ing them both. After that, it might be that these two men 
became hunting companions or partners, realizing that it was 
always a good thing to be of assistance one to the other. 

This was the earliest beginning of comradeship, out of 
which was developed friendship; and this led eventually to the 
practice of gathering together in villages, for the sake of the 
good which this brought to all, both for deer reasons and for 
wolf reasons. 


[52] 


THE PACK 


Now and then two packs would find themselves matched 
against one another—the pack of wolves against the pack of 
men—as in some especially severe winter, when game was 
scarce, and the beasts were rendered bold by hunger. Then 
the wolves might be seen stealing out from the woods, their 
shadows black against the snow: great wide faces, narrowing 
down to the sharp muzzle where gleamed pointed teeth; red 
tongues lolling from the side of the jaws; on the shoulders a 
heavy mane of fur which bristled when the beast was angry; 
cruel green eyes shining with hunger. Now and then as they 
came on, these pirates of the forest, in a long irregular line 
from among the shadowy trees, one of their number would 
halt for a moment, throw back his head, and give out a long 
shuddering howl. Cautiously they would steal in toward the 
camp and spread out around it, watching for a chance to rush 
in and pounce upon some child, or even upon a grown per¬ 
son who chanced to be alone. Then the hunters also would 
practice wolf methods. Armed with their throwing-stones and 
darts, they would spread out fanwise, keeping in touch with 
one another, and at the signal would launch into the pack a 
volley of missiles, trying to pick off the leaders if they could. 
When a wolf went down with a broken leg or with a javelin 
between his ribs, he would instantly be set upon by the rest 
of the pack, and torn into bits in a moment of time. This 
the hunters knew, and they always counted on it in their 
attack; for while the wolves were busy worrying the wounded, 
the men would charge into them with their spears and 
clubs, and usually rout them and drive them back into the 
forest. 

Here was another lesson, said Graum, which men had 
learned from their observation of the pack: that when they 
got quarreling among themselves, they always opened the way 
[ 53 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


for trouble; only as they acted together in harmony and good¬ 
will could they succeed. 

Graum looked keenly at Ruig as he made this last remark; 
and then he added that this was a good lesson for boys. Ruig 
hung his head, for he remembered how during the foot-race 
a few days before he and one of his competitors had been so 
occupied in jockeying and shouldering one another that they 
were both thrown out of stride, with the result that a second- 
rate runner had passed them and come in the winner. 

Ruig left Graum’s hut in the hope that some day he might 
himself see the wolf-pack in action; with the added determina¬ 
tion that he would always be on the watch for lessons which 
might be drawn from the habits of animals. He could see 
that everything the old hunter had said was true; realizing 
for the first time the great importance in many ways of united 
action among the members of the tribe in things which con¬ 
cerned them all alike, and how necessary it was to maintain a 
friendly and cordial feeling all around. 


[54] 


FIRE 












CHAPTER VII 
Fire 

O NE morning Ruig, having nothing special to do, was 
sitting on a log outside the hut, watching his mother 
kindle the fire for the day. Overnight, the ashes had 
been scraped together so as to cover the embers, and now when 
Ruig’s mother raked them open again, he noticed how quickly 
the coals began to glow when she blew upon them. Two or 
three bits of firewood, burned in two so that only the ends 
were left, she laid with the charred points together; and in 
a moment both began to show red where they touched, finally 
breaking into a clear gentle flame. After a little, when some 
dry rushes and a handful of twigs had been thrown on, a merry 
blaze crackled up; and soon the fire was going strong. 

Ruig moved over a little nearer on his log, partly because 
he was cold, and partly in order to watch the fire, which he 
never tired of studying, and about which he never ceased to 
wonder. He loved to see the flame lay hold on the logs, slowly 
at first, licking around them as if tasting them; finally seizing 
upon them, flowing around and over them, devouring them 
until all there was left was a smaller likeness of the log in gray¬ 
ish cinders, which fell into ashes when you poked it with a stick. 

Where did the rest of the log go to? Where did the fire 
come from? Now and then Ruig’s fire at home went out, 
and had to be kindled anew from that of a neighbor. And 
once in a while, when there was heavy rain, all the fires would 
be drowned, and some one would have to go to work with the 
fire-drill to start them afresh. 

[ 57 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


This was an interesting thing to watch, and was by no 
means as easy as it looked, for it took strength and persistence 
before you got your smoke even, to say nothing of your 
flame. 

This was the way of it. Two men would squat on the 
ground with a flat slab of wood lying between them. There 
was a small hole in this slab, and in this hole one of the men 
would set the point of the drill, which was a straight shaft of 
hard wood about eighteen inches long. He held the drill 
firmly in the socket by means of a small stone hollowed on 
the under side, which he pressed down upon the upper end 
of the drill; and the other man twisted the shaft itself rapidly 
around, back and forth in the hole, by means of a thong with 
which he had taken a half hitch around it, grasping the two 
ends in his hands so as to tauten it and make it take hold. 
Pretty soon there would be smoke around the foot of the 
drill. Powdered wood from an old dry rotten stump would 
then be sprinkled on; then a handful of dried leaves or ferns; 
and before long a tiny flame would spring up, which would be 
gently coaxed and fed until it became a real blaze. 

Ruig was very fond of seeing this done, and had some¬ 
times tried it himself, though without much success, his only 
results being a little smoke. It was, however, not the fire 
itself, but the warmth of it, which puzzled him most. This 
sensation of warmth you felt when you sat in the sun, or when 
you piled the furs over you on a cold night. You felt it when¬ 
ever you ran, or exercised your body in any active way; or 
when you huddled close with the others in the hut or the cave. 

The opposite feeling was that of cold, and this was your 
enemy, which would get you if it could. Sometimes hunters 
succumbed to it, as at the time of the great ibex-hunt, when 
several of them froze to death on the glacier, as Graum had 
[ 58 ] 


FIRE 


told him—the time when the cold killed Graum’s feet, so that 
he had to cut them off and throw them away. 

Cold, you felt if you sat still in the wind, or if you touched 
snow or ice, or if you left off your outer clothes in winter. 
Ruig wondered about this, too, and why it was that there was 
a change of seasons, so that one had to prepare for it, and 
provide against it in various ways. 

The animals and the birds did the same, but their methods 
were different from those of people. They either migrated to 
warmer places in cold weather, like the songbirds, or to colder 
places in warm weather, like the woolly rhinoceros. These 
animals that stayed in the same region the year round simply 
changed their coats, growing a thick heavy one in winter, and 
shedding it in summer, thus outwitting the climate, and get¬ 
ting the better of it at its own game. 

But there was one thing about which Ruig wondered most 
of all: who made the first fire? and how did he know how to 
do it? The village fires were kindled from one another, and 
there was comparatively little danger of their ever all being 
out at once; but there must have been very long ago a time 
when nobody had any fire at all, when nobody had ever seen 
one; when all food was eaten raw; when there was no protec¬ 
tion against cold except by putting on more clothes; but since 
there were fires now, there must have been a first one; and 
how it had been kindled, Ruig very much wanted to know. 

He had often questioned the hunters about this, but none 
of them could help him: and even old Graum, who knew 
everything, shook his head. Ruig evidently must think it out 
for himself; and this is the way he finally did so. 

When the hunters were shaping their flint knives and 
spear-heads, they would take a slab of flint and hammer it 
with another stone until it split. Then they would carefully 
[ 59 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


trim and chip it away until it took just the form they wanted. 

Ruig used to sit for hours watching this process, and had 
even tried it himself in a small way; and one day when he 
was holding his flint in one hand and pounding it with another 
stone, sparks would spring out as he struck—one very large 
and bright one landing upon his bare knee, with a momentary 
but distinct sensation of heat; and in a minute another fell 
upon the corner of his skin apron, going out almost instantly, 
but leaving behind a strong smell of scorched fur. Ruig was 
on the track of the secret. If the spark was large enough, and 
was caught upon something very loose and very dry, it would 
smoulder for a few seconds, and give you time to blow on it, 
as you did on the tinder when you were using the fire-drill, or 
upon the embers of your fire in the morning; and you could 
thus fan it into a flame. 

Acting upon this idea, Ruig spent hours in trying out his 
theory. He collected all kinds of dry materials, such as the 
hunters used with the fire-drill: punk from a rotten stump, 
dead leaves, dried ferns rubbed to a fine powder. But for a 
very long time he had no success at all, although he pounded 
flints together thousands of times. Not even the smallest 
spark flew into his tinder-pile. 

One afternoon, after a fruitless session of this kind, and 
just as he was about ready to give up in despair, an idea 
occurred to Ruig which he at once proceeded to follow up. 
Scraping his tinder up in both hands, he started at full speed 
for the place where he had been working at the time that he 
struck the two big sparks, the first of which had burned his 
knee, while the second had scorched the fur of his apron. 
Arriving at the spot, he squatted on the ground, put his tinder 
carefully away in a dry corner of the ledge, and began a minute 
scrutiny of the broken bits of rock which were scattered all 
[ 60 ] 


FIRE 


about. These he picked up one by one and carefully examined 
them, to see whether there was any essential difference be¬ 
tween them. 

This was the idea which had occurred to Ruig. It might 
be that the proper way to strike a spark was to strike together 
not any two stones, and not two stones of the same kind, which 
was what he had been doing, choosing flints because they were 
the hardest; but two stones of different kinds, which must be 
exactly suited to produce the desired result. He distinctly 
remembered that when he had struck the big sparks, he had 
been holding a flint in one hand; he thought that the other 
stone was not a flint, but some other kind; and what that 
kind was he now intended to find out. 

He continued, therefore, to pick over with great care the 
broken bits of rock with which the ground was strewn. Finally 
he had quite a pile of specimens of various kinds—and now 
the real experiment began. 

Holding in his left hand, as before, a narrow slab of flint, 
he struck upon this with the bits of rock which he took one by 
one from the pile of specimens before him. From the first 
dozen or so no result followed, and Ruig discarded them in 
disgust. But when his pile was almost exhausted, he picked 
up a stone which was rather dark in color, and sprinkled 
through with shining bright specks. Idly he struck this upon 
his flint; startled, he saw the flash of a spark. Again he 
struck, and again; and with each blow a spark sprang into 
momentary life. In high excitement Ruig now assembled his 
tinder from the crevice where he had placed it. Throwing 
himself flat on the ground before his little heap of inflam¬ 
mables, he grasped his bits of rock and struck them together; 
and to his immense delight, soon a huge spark flew directly 
into the middle of his tinder-pile. A thin thread of smoke 
[ 61 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


arose; then a little point of light showed itself. Gently and 
steadily, so as not to kill it, Ruig breathed upon this point of 
light. A charred spot appeared, slowly spreading among the 
tinder; and as he continued to blow, his hands cupped about 
the tinder, to ward off sudden drafts of air, there came a glow, 
and then a tiny spear of flame. This he fed with bits of leaf, 
shreds of fern, and even tufts of fur plucked from his apron; 
and it brightened and grew stronger, waxed from a flame to a 
blaze, crackled and spread, until at last, seizing upon a bunch 
of grass and twigs, it roared up into a real fire, deep and 
strong, licking and curling hungrily among the fuel which 
Ruig now threw onto it with both hands. Ruig sprang to his 
feet and danced around with shouts of delight. At last he 
had discovered the secret. Now he knew where fire came 
from, in one way, at least; and he was the proudest boy on 
earth. 

That night there was a thunderstorm, and lightning struck 
a dead tree at some distance from the camp, setting it on fire, 
so that it blazed like a great torch stuck up on the hillside. 
Ruig lay in bed and watched it through the open front of the 
hut. That might have been another way in which fire was 
first discovered; but his own method was best. Lightning you 
could neither control nor get when you needed it most; sparks 
from a flint you could produce at any time. Satisfied with 
himself, Ruig fell asleep at last, and dreamed of carrying about 
with him in his pouch a magic flame, with which he kindled 
all the village fires every morning, thus becoming head medi¬ 
cine-man of the tribe, entitled to carry one of the carved ivory 
batons which marked him as a distinguished chief. 

Next day when he awoke he was still full of his discovery, 
and hurried away at the first possible moment to his ledge, 
where he searched the ground thoroughly for additional speci- 
[ 62 ] 


FIRE 


mens of the proper kind to use with the flint striker. After 
an hour’s work, he had collected several dozen; and best of 
all, he had discovered an outcrop of ledge from which any 
quantity might be broken off. 

His pouch full of specimens, Ruig now made his way 
back to the camp, showed the hunters what he had found, 
and illustrated a dozen times before wondering groups the 
new method of fire-making, so much simpler than the tedious 
twisting of the fire-drill. The headmen gave him nods of 
approval which pleased him more than any other reward could 
possibly have done; and from that day each hunter carried in 
his pouch the flint and striking-stone, discarding the old-time 
implements as out-of-date. 


[ 63 ] 



HUNTING THE SABER-TOOTH 















I 










CHAPTER VIII 
Hunting the Saber-Tooth 

I N his talk at various times with the hunters and with old 
Graum in particular (as in the lecture which the latter 
had once given him upon the subject of the wolf-pack), 
Ruig had come to know a good deal about various animals and 
their habits. He remembered that the bear, savage and dan¬ 
gerous when accompanied by its cubs, is nevertheless peace¬ 
able by nature, and comical in some of its behavior, as when 
eating berries from off the bushes, or when digging honey-comb 
out of a rotten log. He remembered that the mammoth and 
the rhinoceros, for all their huge bulk and fierce appearance, 
fed upon roots and grasses, like the gentlest kind of deer. But 
Ruig had always had ideas of his own about the tiger, or ‘‘saber¬ 
tooth,” as the hunters called him, from the two great curved 
tusks which, seven inches or more in length, projected down¬ 
ward from the corners of his upper jaw, having saw-like edges 
and needle-points. No animal seemed so fierce as the tiger; 
and Ruig always thought of him as living upon human flesh, 
lying in wait at night in the reeds near the village, to spring out 
and strike down some unsuspecting victim. When he himself 
had occasion to be out after dusk, even when close by the huts, 
he always circled out into the open so as to be safe from such 
attacks. 

Much to his surprise, however, Ruig found that he must 
revise his ideas about the tiger and his nature. This animal 
was in reality timid, and would always skulk and hide if he 
could, instead of rushing out of the jungle upon his hunters; 
[ 67 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


and the tawny colors in his coat exactly matched the reeds 
and dry grass where he loved to lie, crouched flat along the 
ground to escape notice. He would almost never attack men 
unless chased and cornered; but his natural prey consisted of 
deer and cattle, with now and then perhaps a horse. Old 
tigers who had grown too stiff to hunt would, it is true, lurk 
near villages, seeking easy prey among the children; and it 
was said that when they had once tasted human flesh they 
always after that preferred it to anything else. Man-eating 
tigers were, however, comparatively scarce, and therefore 
there was no great reason for being afraid. 

The men of Ruig’s village had a grudge though against all 
tigers, because one of the beasts had carried off a young girl, 
the daughter of the head-man; and every now and then the 
hunters would organize an expedition for the purpose of clean- 
ting out the saber-tooth from the neighborhood. 

Just now they were planning such a raid; and spear-shafts 
were being straightened, the points made sharp and fastened 
firmly with thongs of rawhide, so that they would not turn at 
the moment of the thrust, and expose the hunter to the deadly 
spring of the tiger, or the crushing stroke of his great paw. 
Some of the men were getting ready the stone axes which they 
carried at their belts, a fearful weapon at close quarters; while 
it was sometimes hurled from a distance, the heavy flint head 
rendering it capable of dealing a stunning blow. All had, 
of course, their throwing-stones in their pouches; and each 
man was overhauling his bark sandals, and binding his legs 
below the knee with strips of leather, for protection against 
the brambles and sharp-edged grass of the jungle. 

A dozen men in all comprised this party, all experienced 
in the hunt, and with special knowledge of the habits of the 
saber-tooth, and his behavior when attacked. He was not only 
[ 68 ] 


HUNTING THE SABER-TOOTH 


strong, but cunning; and it was a question of matching cun¬ 
ning against cunning, and not merely strength with strength. 

Narg, of course, was one of the special number chosen 
for the raid, for he was a keen tracker, and could follow ani¬ 
mal signs where nobody else could; while, for all his great 
size, he moved through the jungle as lightly and silently as the 
tiger himself. Ruig was terribly anxious to accompany the 
party, and did not see why, when he had been taken along at 
the time they had dug the pit for the mammoth, he should not 
go this time too. His father said no; but Narg put in a word 
for him; and it was finally agreed that if Narg would make 
himself responsible for the boy’s safety, he should be per¬ 
mitted to go; for after all, a boy must begin sometime to incur 
the dangers of the hunt; and Ruig was large and strong for his 
age. So, having received his father’s permission, he dashed de¬ 
lightedly into the hut to get his javelins and spear, while into 
the loop at the side of his belt he thrust a beautiful little stone 
axe which Graum had made for him. There was some delay 
while Narg fitted sandals upon his feet, and wrapped his legs 
in leather strips like the others; then, feeling every inch a 
hunter, he marched by Narg’s side as the party took its way 
across the prairie toward the place where at least one tiger was 
known to have his lair. 

As they went along, Narg explained the plan. At about 
mid-day, when the tiger would probably be lying in the long 
grass, on account of the heat, the hunters would make ready 
to surround him. They would form a great circle and grad¬ 
ually close in, beating up the cover as they advanced, by 
throwing in stones and clubs, so as to disturb the beast and get 
him moving. According to his habit, the tiger would do his 
best to hide, and slink away without being seen, and it would 
require a sharp eye to detect him in the tall grass and rushes, 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


for he could creep through with never a sound or a stir, 
like a snake almost; and unless brought to bay by numbers, 
the chances were that he would not put up a fight, for it was 
his well-known trait to avoid hostilities whenever he could. 

Waiting, therefore, until the sun was almost overhead, the 
hunters stationed themselves in a wide circle about the patch 
of dense jungle somewhere in the depths of which the saber¬ 
tooth was believed to be. Slowly they moved forward, nar¬ 
rowing the circle as they advanced, keeping vigilant watch of 
every tussock and thicket for a glimpse of the striped tawny 
coat; Ruig well to the rear, as ordered by Narg, creeping along 
behind the others, but on the alert as sharply as any one, 
hoping that his own keen eyes might be the first to spy the 
quarry after all. 

Narrower and narrower grew the circle, until only a small 
patch of jungle remained, and it began to look as though the 
cover was blank, when one of the hunters on the side of the 
circle opposite Ruig gave a shout. Narg gripped his spear 
and bounded forward; and even as he dashed through the 
brush in the direction of the shout, suddenly, at one side, slip¬ 
ping noiselessly through the grass, Ruig caught sight of a 
supple yellowish body in the act of stealing backward away 
from the hunters toward the open. The tiger had eluded them, 
and was making off while they were following a false scent. 
Ruig yelled his loudest; at the same time he threw his javelin, 
and drew the axe from his belt, prepared to defend himself 
in case the saber-tooth should spring. But instead of doing 
this, the great beast with a throaty snarl rose in a long grace¬ 
ful leap above the thicket which barred its way, and disap¬ 
peared along the edge of the woods—Ruig, axe in hand, fol¬ 
lowing in hot pursuit. As he ran, he wondered where the 
hunters were; but in point of fact, there had been two tigers 



The Saber-Tooth at Bay 




















HUNTING THE SABER-TOOTH 


in the jungle, instead of one; and while Ruig was engaging 
his, the other was meeting his end beneath a rain of spears. 

True to his obligation, Narg waited only long enough to 
make sure that he was not needed at the kill, and quickly re¬ 
traced his steps to look for Ruig and see that he came to no 
harm. To tell the truth, he had forgotten him for one moment, 
in the excitement of the first alarm; and became now a trifle 
anxious when at the spot where he had last seen him he found 
no trace of him. At once, however, he picked up the trail, 
and when Ruig emerged at the edge of the thicket, Narg was 
at his side; and both saw the saber-tooth just vanishing in 
another patch of jungle some distance away. 

They had the same process to go through with over again; 
and only waiting until the others had come up, with the dead 
tiger, lashed to a pole, swinging upon the shoulders of two 
men, the circle was once more formed, and the beating of the 
covert began. This time the tiger was less cautious than before; 
excited perhaps, and frightened by the presence of so many 
enemies, it was not long before he made for the open, where 
a little stream ran through a scattered growth of scrub oaks; 
and stood at bay at the water’s edge, bristling and snarling and 
lashing his long tail. 

Cautiously Narg and his hunters approached, spears ready, 
axes loosened in their belts; gradually, as before, the circle 
closed in. The tiger could not face them all. Bewildered, 
he turned from side to side, only to find other enemies on flank 
and rear. Blood was trickling from his head, where he had 
evidently somehow received a wound; and now, while missiles 
hailed upon him from every side, Narg sprang in with his spear 
and thrust it deep into the tawny throat. The saber-tooth 
fell, clawing convulsively at the shaft of the weapon, choking 
and struggling in the death-agony, splashing into the little 

[71] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


streamlet and out again, twisting horribly among the dead 
leaves; until at last it stiffened throughout its whole length, 
then relaxed and lay still. 

When the hunters examined the body, they found that 
Ruig’s javelin had evidently grazed the tiger’s forehead and 
drawn blood, which had run down into his eyes, and made 
him confused and uncertain. It was this which had made 
him so easy a prey; and Ruig was overwhelmed with joy to 
think that he had had a real share in the kill. 

The first saber-tooth was an old one, ragged of coat, and 
with one of its great tusks missing, broken off at some time or 
other in a battle, or because of decay. Ruig’s tiger, on the 
other hand, was young and perfect, measuring twenty feet 
from tip to tip, and having a magnificent pelt. 

It was a very proud boy that accompanied the hunters 
back to camp that evening, walking by the side of his tiger, 
the end of its tail in his hand. 


[72] 


THE CAVES 




CHAPTER IX 
The Caves 


L ATE in the fall of the year, the village huts with their 
coverings of skin would become too cold for comfort, 
especially at night, and at that period the entire popu¬ 
lation of the settlement where Ruig lived would collect their 
household moveables, and take refuge in the caves found in 
the limestone cliffs, at some distance back from the river. 
These cliffs extended for miles from east to west, and as the 
cave-mouths faced the south, they received the full benefit of 
the sunshine, while the hills at the back shut off the chilling 
winds. 

These caves were of different kinds. Some were truly 
caves, extending back for many hundred feet right into the 
heart of the rock, with branching chambers here and there on 
either side, and smooth walls and lofty ceilings. 

The floors were of rock as well; but this was covered with 
an accumulation of earth, and mixed with this was an immense 
quantity of bones, large and small, of animals and birds, which 
had once made the cave their home and left their remains 
there when they died, or had been killed and brought into 
the cave by the bears and hyenas which undoubtedly once 
lived in these places before the men took possession of them. 
There were fragments of the skeletons of larger beasts, such 
as the mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros; and these must 
have been brought in by hunters, who, leaving the carcass 
on the prairie where it fell, had carried home the more eatable 
portions, and having removed the meat to be dried in the 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


smoke and stored away for future use, had cracked the bones 
for the purpose of getting out the marrow, and had thrown 
the pieces on the ground, to be trodden under foot into the 
earth of the floor. For very many years this must have been 
going on; this accumulation was several feet in depth, as gen¬ 
eration after generation of hunters, of forgotten races, must 
have lived in these caves, as those of Ruig’s tribe were doing. 

Some of the caves, however, were hardly more than shel¬ 
ters or grottos, formed by a recess under the lee of an over¬ 
hanging cliff, which served to keep out the rain and snow, and 
afforded protection from the wind, but were not deep enough 
to permit family life to be as comfortable and easy as in the 
large caverns. It was possible to build up in front a barricade 
or wall of stones, which helped in some degree to keep out the 
weather, and might on occasion serve also as a defense against 
marauding animals; for in the dead of winter these sometimes 
became desperate from hunger, and would not hesitate to 
attack human beings. At such times the cave was not merely 
a dwelling, it became a fort. 

Ruig’s father, being one of the prominent men of the tribe, 
was assigned one of the larger and more roomy caves for his 
winter home; and he took in with his own family old Graum, 
as he was sorry for the old man, crippled and lonely, with no 
one of his own kin to look out for him; and he also invited 
Narg, with his wife and her two children, to occupy one of the 
inner chambers of the cave, which was plenty large for a family 
of four, and had in addition the advantage of a chimney, which 
few of the caves possessed. This chimney, of course, was 
nothing but a crevice in the roof leading through to the upper 
air; but it gave ventilation, and enabled Narg’s wife to build 
a fire in her kitchen without danger of suffocating the family 
in the smoke. 


[76] 


THE CAVES 


Narg’s children were about the age of Ruig, and the three 
were great playmates, inventing every kind of game to while 
away the time when they were snowbound, as often happened; 
and Narg was great fun, for he was tremendously goodnatured, 
and being a famous hunter, always had interesting things to 
tell about. One day he told the children how the cave was 
made. It had not been dug out of rock by men, as the children 
had always thought; for even if there had been proper tools, 
the labor would have been prodigious, making it an impos¬ 
sible task. But long, very long ago, said Narg, a little pool 
of water gathered, up on top of the plateau, in a hollow place 
in the ground, and trickled down into a crack in the rock 
itself. Some cold night the water froze solid, and split open 
the crack a little wider, and into the enlarged crevice more 
water trickled. By and by it made its way, following the 
seams in the rock, clear down through, and out at the base of 
the cliff. After a while it wore a regular channel; until at 
last all the surface water of the plateau found its way to this 
opening, pouring through in a larger and larger stream, eating 
out the softer portions of the rock, polishing the wall surfaces 
with the sand which it brought down with it; until a time came 
when for some cause or other the outlet of the pool above 
became blocked, and the water ceased to flow. Then the cave 
dried out, and became a refuge at first for animals, such as 
the bears and hyenas; and later for the men, who drove out 
the animals, and took possession for themselves. Even now 
in thawing weather the walls would drip with moisture; and 
old Graum complained of the terrific aches in his bones which 
rheumatism gave him, spending whole days muffled in a great 
pile of furs, in the warmest corner he could find, near the fire 
in Narg’s part of the cave. 

Mostly the life of the family was spent near the entrance 

[ 77 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


of the cave, where could be found fresh air and light. The 
boys had helped repair the stone barrier across the entrance; 
and this was a circumstance for which all hands, on one night 
at least, were to have occasion to be devoutly thankful. Ruig’s 
mother built her fire just inside this barrier. Supplies of vari¬ 
ous kinds—firewood, dried meat, the pelts of the animals 
brought in by the hunters—were stored in the corners of the 
inner cave. But the family life centered around the fire. 
Here Ruig’s father and Narg chipped their flints, and carved 
their spearheads of ivory and bone. Here old Graum, with 
his array of gravers and planers, did his curious work in deco¬ 
ration and sculpture. Here the women plied their bone 
needles and thread of sinew, to make clothing for the family; 
and here the children played their various games. The one 
they liked best was played with a small bone image of the 
cave-bear, having holes drilled all over him. He was tied by 
a piece of thong to one end of a slender skewer of bone, and 
the game consisted in tossing him into the air as far as the 
thong permitted, and then trying to catch him on the point 
of the skewer. Narg’s girl, whose name was Enga, was much 
cleverer at this than either of the boys, and was always twitting 
them for being so clumsy. 

Every day when the weather permitted the men would go 
out hunting; but there would be whole weeks at a time when 
they were kept in by the fierce wind and deep snow. Winter 
was a hard season; it had its privations and its dangers; but 
it had its peculiar pleasures as well; and these the children 
appreciated to the full. 

The snow would sometimes pile up before the mouth of 
their cave until it lay in great drifts higher than a man. The 
prevailing winds were from the north, which was toward the 
back of the cliffs; and when they carried the snow before them 
[ 78 ] 


THE CAVES 


it would drop over the brink of the hill, and collect at its 
foot. More than a few mornings during the winter, the men 
and boys would find themselves compelled to tunnel their 
way out to daylight, the snow seeming like a great white cur¬ 
tain hanging before the cave-mouth. When this occurred it was 
always delightfully cosy and warm inside, and Graum would 
rub his rheumatic joints with exclamations of satisfaction. 

When the days were somewhat warm, and the surface of 
the snow softened a little, freezing up again toward night, 
a crust would form on the drifts, strong enough to bear the 
weight of a boy or girl if they trod carefully. The ground 
sloped from the cliff toward the river, and the children never 
grew tired of coasting down the incline, sitting upon a wolf¬ 
skin with the fur side down, and gathering headway as they 
went until they skidded with a bump over the bank and out 
onto the ice of the river. At first they used to spin around a 
good deal, which made them giddy; but after a while they 
learned how to steer the wolf-skin by means of short sticks 
which they dug into the crust on either side. Curiously 
enough, here, too, little Enga was more expert than either of 
the boys; and Narg, who was fond of children, and liked to 
be around with them, was more skillful still. He would even 
stand erect on his wolf-skin, steering with a couple of spears; 
and although sometimes, owing to his weight, he broke through 
the crust and was spilled in the snow, he never seemed to tire 
of the sport, and would leave whatever he was doing to join 
in the fun. 

Graum had once had an adventure with a pack of wolves, 
which chased him through the forest as he was returning from 
a visit to his traps. For a time he kept ahead of them by 
throwing away one thing after another; the rabbits which he 
had snared and had hung over his shoulder in a bag, then his 
[ 79 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 

cap, his mittens, and at last his heavy coat. The pack would 
stop for a few moments to worry each article as it fell in the 
snow, and then would take after him again, though he gained 
a few rods with each delay. At last he reached the river, and 
raced down it upon the ice toward the camp, which lay some 
distance below. Graum was wearing shoes with soles of woven 
willow-twigs, and these gave him some foothold upon the ice, 
while the wolves would slip and slither as they rounded the 
curves of the stream. At last the camp came in sight around 
the bend. The wolves were upon Graum’s very heels; putting 
forth his last ounce of strength, the hunter managed to keep 
ahead a moment longer. Just as he came abreast of the huts, 
he braced his feet and dug his heels into the ice, thus putting 
on brakes and slackening speed; while the wolves, carried 
headlong by their rush, and unable to check themselves, slid 
past him, snapping their jaws in vain attempts to seize him. 
By the time they could turn and start back, Graum was up the 
bank and in safety, while the hunters came pouring out of 
their shelters and sent a shower of javelins among the pack, 
more than one of which went down, the others retreating in 
disorder. 

Of all the winter pastimes, by far the best was to sit around 
the fire in the evening and listen to stories such as these; for 
not only did Graum possess a large stock of them, but he told 
them so graphically that one could almost imagine himself an 
actor in the events which were described; and Ruig used in 
his dreams to live through many an exciting episode of hunt or 
battle, the story of which had been in his ears when he went to 
bed. 


[ 80 ] 


THE INVADERS 
















CHAPTER X 
The Invaders 

A MONG the stories which Graum would tell as they 
all sat around the fire in the evening were some about 
the different kinds of animals and birds which in time 
past had made the caves their home. 

In seasons when the cold was severe and food hard to 
come at, it was not an unknown thing for wolves and hyenas 
to seek the shelter of these rock dwellings, where they might 
at least keep from freezing; and when they had become des¬ 
perate from hunger, they would actually attack the people who 
lived there, in spite of their instinctive dread of man. This 
possibility, remote as it seemed, was destined very soon to 
show itself a fact; and Ruig became not merely a spectator 
of it, but a chief actor, who was forced to play a very consid¬ 
erable part. 

That year the winter was very long, and the north wind 
blew persistently, cutting through the thickest furs, and forc¬ 
ing everybody to keep pretty closely indoors. Fortunately 
there was a good stock of firewood, for all through the fall of 
the year it had been systematically gathered and stored in the 
back of the cave, where it would keep dry. After a while, the 
rock walls became thoroughly warmed, and would give out a 
good deal of heat, even after the fires had died down at night, 
so that Narg’s and Ruig’s families did not really suffer much 
from cold as long as they kept closely at home. 

But for the boys, this inaction and monotony soon became 
very wearisome, accustomed as they were to active life out of 
[ 83 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


doors; and they consequently grew restless, and made all sorts 
of excuses to get outside, though they were always warned not 
to wander too far away. 

One day Ruig and his playmates had organized a make- 
believe hunt, tracking various animals through the snow, 
though they did not dare follow too fast, for fear that they 
might come to close quarters with some beast which would 
prove dangerous. 

Toward night, they returned in a great hurry, and breath¬ 
less with excitement, saying that they had found the trail of a 
large pack of hyenas, which were evidently taking shelter in 
the woods near by. The men of the two families were away at 
the time, and the only adult at home was Graum, who was 
complaining of rheumatism, and was really very stiff and lame, 
and hardly able to be about. 

He listened carefully to what the boys had to say, and 
then gave directions to build up the barrier of rock across the 
cave-mouth, which had been allowed to fall into some dis¬ 
repair. The boys thought this great fun, and lugged big 
stones from every part of the cave until the wall was about 
three feet high all across; but even then Graum was not satis¬ 
fied, but grumbled to himself as he saw to it that the fire was 
well fed, so as to burn clear and bright, while an extra quantity 
of wood was piled close at hand. 

In good season everybody curled up among the furs for 
a night’s sleep. The cold grew more intense at sundown, at 
which time Narg and Ruig’s father had not yet returned from 
their hunting trip; and Graum kept one eye open to watch the 
fire, as well as to see that no unwelcome intruder appeared at 
the cave-mouth. But even Graum must have fallen asleep for 
a moment, for all at once Ruig found himself on his feet, star¬ 
tled from his dreams by a series of hideous yells, which he 
[ 84 ] 


THE INVADERS 


knew could come only from the throat of a hyena. The fire 
had burned low; but by the dim light he could distinguish a 
dozen ungainly furry bodies just clambering over the rocks at 
the entrance of the cave. The hyenas, rendered bold by star¬ 
vation, were rushing the barrier, and in a second would be 
among them. 

Ruig shouted as loud as he could in the hope of frighten¬ 
ing the marauders. The others were awake in an instant, and 
the women shrank back into a corner, shielding Enga behind 
them. Graum gave a full-throated roar, and threw some light 
wood on the fire, which quickly blazed up and lighted the 
scene. He then seized his weapons, and hurled a spear into 
the pack, which broke momentarily as one of its number went 
down with its ribs pierced through; then they rushed upon 
their fallen companion, whose body had scarcely touched the 
ground before it was completely covered by a struggling mass 
of hyenas, which with gleaming eyes and slavering jaws tore 
it to pieces in a twinkling, and then retired a little way, lick¬ 
ing their chops and snarling as they faced the defenders of 
the cave. 

Ruig tried to count the pack, and saw that it numbered at 
least twenty—great gaunt high-shouldered beasts, any one 
of them more than a match for a boy. And there were only 
two boys and a half-crippled man to stand them off. He felt 
no fear in spite of this disparity in numbers, but ground his 
teeth with anger, only wondering how the three were to cope 
with the twenty. Graum was roaring again, and snatching up 
bits of rock was hurling them among the pack, which only 
dodged and snarled, without retreating, and was evidently 
preparing for another rush upon the barrier. Quickly Ruig 
and the other boy piled their light javelins ready to hand. 
Graum had a sheaf of spears; and he now gave the word that 
[ 35 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


they were to wait for his signal, and then cast their weapons 
one after another into the pack as rapidly as possible. Even 
as he spoke, the rush came. Roaring his command, Graum 
transfixed another huge brute in midair, as he sprang over the 
barrier of rocks. Ruig’s first cast also found its mark; and 
then he went down under the impact of a heavy furry form, 
hearing the jaws snap together close to his face, and inhaling 
the fetid breath of the beast as they rolled over one another 
upon the floor. Giving himself up for lost, Ruig nevertheless 
instinctively scrambled to one side, and was immensely re¬ 
lieved when his enemy, which had fallen into the glowing 
embers of the fire, dashed away into the night with savage 
yells, leaving behind a great smell of scorching fur. 

Ruig was on his feet again in an instant, javelin in hand, 
and a strange sight met his eyes. At the barrier, and in the 
very act of mounting it, were a dozen hyenas. Confronting 
them were three defenders—old Graum, balancing himself 
upon his crippled stumps, his huge axe heaved up to strike; 
Narg’s boy, crouching a little to the rear, his long spear in 
readiness, his eyes darting here and there among the invaders; 
and with these two, Narg’s wife, in one fist a jagged handstone, 
in the other a club; her hair all about her face, her mouth open 
with a fierce expression, as, braced upon her strong legs, her 
feet planted wide apart, she awaited the charge of the hyenas. 
Back in the farthest corner of the cave crouched Ruig’s mother 
with little Enga in her arms. A warning shout from Graum, 
as his axe crashed through the skull of one of the pack. A 
second spitted itself upon the spear of Narg’s boy, who, un¬ 
able to withdraw his weapon in time, and tripping over the 
long shaft as the dying hyena writhed upon the floor, went 
down under the weight of two great beasts. Rooted with 
terror to the spot, Ruig saw the great axe flash again in the 
[ 86 ] 



Repulse of The Hye?ias 


































































' 















' 
























































THE INVADERS 


firelight, and miss its mark; while Graum, overbalanced by his 
blow, and standing precariously on his crippled feet, stumbled 
to his knees. All seemed lost; but Narg’s wife was there. 
Throwing herself astride of her boy, she met the springing 
hyenas single-handed. With a sweep of her club she stunned 
the first one; seizing another by the long shaggy mane which 
grew upon its shoulders, she struck fiercely with her jagged 
handstone at its eyes, until, crazed and blinded, it sought to 
pull itself out of the fray, when Ruig awoke from his stupor, 
and nailed it with his javelin to the floor. Graum was up 
again and had recovered his axe; but the cave seemed full of 
hyenas. Desperately the defenders struck into the confused 
mass of their enemies; but their arms were tiring, they were 
dazed by the shifting of the struggling bodies. The end 
seemed close at hand when a great shouting arose at the cave- 
mouth, and Ruig’s father and Narg came springing down over 
the barrier into the cave. Alighting on his feet, Ruig’s father 
instantly balanced himself, his eyes darting about him, his 
keen axe poised. A sweep to one side, then to the other— 
and two hyenas went down, with split skull and broken spine. 
It seemed as though the axe had barely touched them, so 
well directed and skillful were the blows. 

Narg, on the other hand, was a fighter of a different sort. 
Roaring as he landed in the very midst of the surprised hyenas, 
he threw away his weapons and attacked the enemy with his 
bare hands. Seizing one great beast by a hind leg, he swung 
it up above his head, brained it against the rocky wall, and 
hurled the carcass among the pack. Falling bodily upon 
another, he crushed it under his weight, and choked its life 
out as it lay beneath him upon the floor. He seemed to tower 
to the roof and fill the cave. Rushing upon a third hyena, 
with one hand at its foreleg and the other at its jaw, he bent 
[ 87 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


back the snarling head and broke its neck. By this time, the 
other defenders had recovered their breath, and something of 
their presence of mind, and hastened to the assistance of their 
rescuers; but the hyenas had had enough. Spitting and snarl¬ 
ing, they dashed from the cave into the darkness, leaving eight 
of their number dead behind them, and making a bloody trail 
as they went upon the snow. Two or three of them turned 
when at a little distance, and looked hungrily back toward the 
cave; but when Ruig’s father whirled a flaming brand among 
them, they too disappeared after their companions; and the 
fight was over. 

It seems that the two hunters, who had appeared upon the 
scene in the very nick of time, had crossed the trail of the 
hyenas a mile from the cave, and seeing that it led toward the 
camp, had followed it with all speed. Owing to the deep snow, 
the going had been heavy, and they had not made as rapid 
progress as they otherwise would. At some distance they had 
heard the sounds of battle, and redoubled their efforts; but 
had they arrived a minute later, there is no telling what they 
might have found. 

All the defenders were pretty well exhausted by the ex¬ 
citement, no less than by their exertions, and all had scratches 
from either claws or teeth. Old Graum had bruised himself 
badly when he fell among the rocks, sustaining quite a cut 
upon the head besides. But after a while all were nearly them¬ 
selves again, and when their hurts had been attended to, and 
they were comfortably seated near the blazing fire, the boys at 
least took great pleasure in fighting the battle over again, 
rehearsing each episode for the benefit of the rescuers, who 
had not witnessed the most thrilling events of all. The men 
listened with much interest, and when Graum put in a special 
word for both of the boys, telling how well they had stood by 


THE INVADERS 


and obeyed orders, the hunters gave them nods of approval 
which pleased them mightily. 

At first it seemed strange that none of the occupants of 
nearby caves had come to the assistance of the beleaguered 
company; but it appeared afterward that while some of the 
noise had been heard, it had been interpreted as the men 
attacking the hyenas, instead of the hyenas attacking the men; 
and beside, as both Ruig’s father and Narg were believed to be 
at home, no danger was anticipated; so that the neighbors, 
having turned an ear for a moment to the sounds of battle, 
had then snuggled down again into their furs and gone to 
sleep, thinking that the hyenas would be well taken care of, as 
indeed they were. 


[89] 













THE GREAT MYSTERY 




CHAPTER XI 


The Great Mystery 

T HE day after the fight with the hyenas, old Graum did 
not leave his bed of rushes and furs, but lay there com¬ 
plaining of bruises and strains. He had overexerted 
himself in the defense of the cave, and had beside that, caught 
cold; and Ruig’s mother, who was looking after him, was 
afraid that he was going to be a pretty sick man. There was, 
however, little that she could do, aside from keeping him warm 
by means of heated stones, which she placed in his bed; and 
moistening his lips now and then so as to allay his thirst. As 
the day wore on, it became evident that the old man was 
seriously ill, and by night he was very feverish and delirious, 
so that the others had to take turns in watching him, and 
replacing the covers which he was continually throwing off. 
On the following day he was no better; at evening there was 
a sudden change for the worse; and at dawn the brave old 
hunter breathed his last. 

Graum’s death was a great blow to Ruig, for he had be¬ 
come very fond of the old man, spending many an interesting 
hour in his company listening to stories, and trying to remem¬ 
ber his advice. He could not make himself believe that the 
silent form under the skin coverings was his friend, who so 
short a while ago had been so full of life, as he swung his 
deadly axe among the leaping hyenas. But Graum would 
never speak nor move again; and Ruig felt very lonely, as he 
sat by himself in a far corner of the cave, and tried to under¬ 
stand what it all meant. 


[93] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


One thing was certain: something had gone away from 
Graum which had been there, a necessary part of him, only a 
few hours before. His strength had gone. His intelligence 
had gone. His affection and his memory, his power of shrewd 
reasoning about things, all had vanished, and nobody had seen 
them go. All that any one could see was what lay there under 
the covering of skins; and that was not Graum—it was what 
Graum had lived in for a while, and left behind him when he 
had to go. Perhaps the real Graum was outside somewhere, 
waiting until his body could catch up with him again. 

Vague ideas like these occupied Ruig’s mind, and were of 
some degree of comfort to him, so that when the medicine-man 
and his assistants came to make the final preparations for the 
burial, Ruig was himself again, and watched with a great deal 
of interest everything that went on. 

The medicine-man was a very awesome and striking fig¬ 
ure. He was clothed in flowing furs, a mask of thin mem¬ 
brane made from the skins of birds covering his face below the 
eyes, and a hood or helmet consisting of the skull and skin of 
a saber-tooth tiger causing him to seem much taller than he 
really was. He wore a triple necklace of claws of the cave- 
bear, hanging nearly to his waist, and carried in one hand a 
beautifully carved ivory baton, showing that he was a chief. 
In the other hand he grasped a rattle, the inflated bladder of 
a wild boar with a few small pebbles inside; and this he swung 
vigorously about by means of a short handle, to which it was 
attached by a thong of deerskin, as he paused at the entrance 
of the cave, to drive out by this means the evil spirits which 
had been responsible for Graum’s death, and might be still 
lurking in the vicinity to see what further mischief they 
could do. 

Satisfied at last apparently that his object had been 

[ 94 ] 


THE GREAT MYSTERY 


accomplished, the medicine-man slowly advanced to the cor¬ 
ner where Graum’s body lay, lifted the covering from the face, 
and gazed down intently upon it. He then drew from his 
pouch a small box of reindeer horn, and took from this with 
finger and thumb a pinch of reddish powder, which he sifted 
into the air, watching to see where and how it finally settled 
upon Graum’s face. After a moment he blew the powder 
lightly away, straightened himself, and motioned to the four 
old women who were his assistants to lift the body from the 
corner, and place it on a mat of skins in the center of the 
floor. This done the assistants then retired, and the medicine¬ 
man began a slow dance about the body, crouching low and 
stretching his legs far out in front of him, as he took each 
step. After several rounds in one direction, he reversed his 
march, and hopped around the other way. This must have 
been very exhausting work, for Ruig could see the perspiration 
streaming down the medicine-man’s face from under the tiger- 
skin helmet; and he was relieved when the dance ceased, and 
the dancer stood erect and motionless at the foot of the rug 
on which lay the body of Graum. After a moment he again 
felt in his pouch, producing this time a handful of fight 
feathers, which he blew into the air; and when all had finally 
settled upon the floor, the medicine-man with the point of a 
bone skewer scratched fines upon the dirt from one to the 
other, thus forming a sort of geometric pattern which he 
studied with great care, muttering to himself as he did so, and 
waving his hands to and fro in a strange and mysterious 
manner. 

Satisfied at last as it seemed with the omens, he scattered 
the feathers, scraped out the pattern with his foot, and mo¬ 
tioned the assistants to approach, while he himself, his own 
part done, placed his baton and rattle upon the ground, and 
[ 95 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


drawing his robe over his head, sank into a corner of the cave, 
a motionless heap of furs. 

All this time Ruig had been watching with intense interest; 
but when the four skinny old hags gathered eagerly about 
Graum’s body, and groped in their bundles for the instru¬ 
ments of their craft, the dim lamp which one of them had 
lighted throwing huge wavering shadows upon the wall, he 
was only too glad to creep away, finally taking to his heels in 
a panic of superstitious fear, and never stopping until he 
reached a group of other boys who were engaged in some com¬ 
monplace occupation which made things seem natural again. 

The next day, word went round that the burial ceremonies 
were to take place at noon; and accordingly, just before the 
shadow of the cliff became the narrowest, showing that the 
sun was nearly overhead, the tribe assembled in two long 
parallel lines, and stood silently watching the entrance of the 
cave where the body lay, now ready for its interment. Just 
at noon, four men appeared at the cave-mouth: Ruig’s father, 
Narg, Huth, and Dourm—the closest friends of the dead man 
—carrying a litter made of poles laced together with rawhide, 
on which was placed the corpse, in a sitting position, the knees 
drawn up close against the chest, the arms folded across and 
strapped there with thongs, the head bowed forward upon the 
knees. Upon the head, so closely as to form a sort of cap, 
were fastened numerous strings of small shells. About the 
neck was a triple necklace of cave-bear claws, from which 
dangled several carved medallions of ivory; and except for 
these decorations, and the usual loin-cloth, the body was 
entirely naked, but had been thickly smeared with a coating 
of red clay found on the river-bank, so that from a distance it 
seemed dressed in a tightly fitting garment of some red 
material. 


[96] 


THE GREAT MYSTERY 


On the litter were piled rich furs, for warmth on the 
long journey which Graum was supposed to have before him. 
Various jars of pottery contained food; and lying alongside 
were the weapons of the old hunter, which he would need in 
the faraway country to which he was bound. 

Slowly the bearers came down the slope from the cave, 
between the lines of people, who averted their eyes in respect 
as the litter passed them, and then fell in in a rude procession 
to follow the body to the burial-place. 

This burial-place was a large grotto at one end of the 
long cliff in which the caves were, facing the west, and already 
containing many bodies placed there from time to time, but 
being roomy enough to accommodate many more. Arriving 
here, the bearers gently lowered the litter to the ground; 
lifted Graum’s body and bore it reverently into the grotto, 
loosening the straps from its arms and legs and laying it upon 
its side in a shallow trench-like excavation scooped out in the 
earthen floor, the face toward the setting sun, the knees drawn 
up toward the body, and the arms flexed so as to assume 
almost the position taken by the elders when they were in the 
attitude of prayer. Near the right hand was placed a little 
heap of the reddish ochre with which the body had been 
smeared. On either side of the head was set up endwise in the 
ground a small slab of stone. The furs were laid in the trench, 
the axe and javelins placed ready to hand; the jars of food 
were set by; the earth which had been removed from the 
trench was then piled over the whole; and the mortal body 
of the old hunter was left to face the great mystery into which 
his spirit had already entered. 

Many perplexing questions crowded the mind of Ruig as 
he made his way back to camp. How was the body which 
lay buried in the trench, with all its possessions about it, to 
[ 97 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


rejoin the spirit which had once animated it, and caused it to 
move and speak? There must be such a reunion of the two; 
for the body was powerless to wrap the furs about its shoul¬ 
ders, help itself from the jars of food, or grasp the javelin 
and the axe which lay beside it. Perhaps the vanished spirit 
was only out scouting over the long trail, and would return 
under cover of the darkness and again take possession of its 
former home. But on the other hand, perhaps there would 
be no need of that; for after all, was not the real Graum, the 
person whom Ruig had known and loved, gone from sight out 
into the great mystery, free at last to do things which it could 
not do as long as the old tired crippled body held it down? 
Perhaps it would not need the supplies, the furs and the 
weapons which had been left for it in the grave. True, all 
human beings, as Ruig knew them, did need such things; but 
the unseen regions into which the real Graum had entered 
might be altogether different in ever so many ways from the 
world as it lay about one here. As to that point, nobody 
could be sure, for so far as Ruig knew no one had ever come 
back to describe that other world. The matter could not be 
settled by argument, nor by wondering about it. It did, how¬ 
ever, give one some great thoughts—and life seemed somehow 
a pleasanter thing when you had the notion that it was not all 
at an end when the body was laid away like Graum’s in the 
grotto, but went on under better conditions somewhere else. 

All this was pretty deep for the mind of a boy; and Ruig 
soon dismissed it from his thoughts, saying to himself that 
inasmuch as he could not solve the mystery, he would leave 
it to take care of itself. 

It may be that this was the very wisest thing he could have 
done. 


[98] 


BRAM THE PROPHET 


CHAPTER XII 
Bram the Prophet 

T HERE was one man in the village of whom Ruig was 
always a little afraid. This was Bram, who lived 
alone in a hut near the cliffs, and seldom mingled with 
the others except when a hunt was on, at which times every 
able-bodied man must be on hand. 

Bram was a sour-looking, silent man, about fifty years old, 
with piercing black eyes which never seemed to look at you, 
but rather through you and beyond you, as though seeing 
things in the far distance which other people did not know 
anything about. Ruig was not the only one who stood in awe 
of this man, for all of the children, and many of the older 
people as well, had the same feeling. Bram had the reputa¬ 
tion of being a prophet; that is, of knowing that things were 
going to happen far in advance of their happening. Old 
Graum, to be sure, had in a certain degree shown himself to 
be a prophet in the matter of the bow and arrow; but this was 
a question rather of shrewdness than of any special gift. Bram, 
on the contrary, was supposed to be in possession of some 
faculty which enabled him to forecast the future by instinct, 
instead of from experience and reason, as had been the case 
with Graum. It was this popular belief concerning Bram, 
together with his silent and mysterious manner, which made 
people dread him, as they are always inclined to dread what 
they fail to understand. 

Ruig was out one day exploring some of the numerous 
caves in the limestone cliff back of the camp; when turning a 
[ 101 ] 



STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


sudden comer, he came upon Bram, who was taking out of 
the fire, by means of two sticks which he used as tongs, some¬ 
thing which resembled a red-hot coal, but which Bram treated 
with great care, laying it down on a flat stone, and bending 
over it with every appearance of great interest. Ruig, from 
where he was standing, could see nothing peculiar about this 
object, and as he looked on, it gradually lost its glow, and 
became like any bit of rock which had been blackened in the 
fire. Bram, however, continued to scrutinize it, finally poking 
it into a puddle of water to cool it, and then picking it up to 
examine it again. Ruig had unconsciously edged nearer and 
nearer, and his shadow across the floor of the cave finally 
attracted the attention of Bram, who sprang to his feet with 
an exclamation of surprise. 

Seeing that Ruig was alone, he relaxed, and then Ruig 
was amazed at being invited in to sit down by the fire. Still 
somewhat afraid, yet not daring to refuse, he complied, and 
sat for a few moments while Bram fixed upon him his strange 
gaze, which seemed to penetrate right through him to the 
rocky wall against which he leaned. 

The silence lasted for quite a while; and just as Ruig, 
becoming nervous, was on the point of jumping up and run¬ 
ning for it, Bram turned his eyes away, and then picking up 
the bit of rock which he had been examining with such care, 
he handed it to Ruig, who mechanically took it and looked it 
over. 

It was not after all just a common bit of rock. It had in it 
seams or veins, from which some soft substance had appar¬ 
ently melted and run out; and this substance lay in streaks 
where it had cooled upon the surface of the rock. These 
streaks were of a reddish color, and showed the mark of 
scratches when Ruig tried them with his finger-nail. But he 
[ 102 ] 



B ram’s Discovery 































































































l 








■ 






































































































BRAM THE PROPHET 


could make nothing of it, and handed the stone back to Bram 
with a silent shake of the head. 

Bram’s grim features relaxed in something like a smile; 
and then, stretching his sinewy legs out before him on the 
floor of the cave, and leaning back comfortably against the 
wall, he began to talk just as any other man would talk, only 
he was a thousand times more interesting than any one to 
whom Ruig had ever listened, not excepting Graum himself. 

The hunters described events in which they had taken 
part, and told of things which they themselves had seen; but 
Bram’s talk was broader and deeper, for he saw into the reasons 
for things, and drew conclusions from what he had seen as to 
what might happen in the future. 

He began on this occasion by talking about the stone 
which he had been heating in the fire. The substance which 
had melted and run out of the seams or veins of this stone, 
he called a “metal,” a word which he had invented to apply 
to this particular thing. The discovery of this metal, and how 
to make use of it, was destined to prove of tremendous impor¬ 
tance to every member of the tribe. If only enough of it could 
be found, and ways devised by which it might be melted out 
of the rock, it could be worked into spear-heads, arrow-points, 
and knives, and everything of that sort which now had to 
be laboriously chipped out of flint, or carved out of horn and 
bone. Moulds could be made into which the metal could be 
run, or it could be softened in the fire and then hammered into 
any desired shape. It could be sharpened, too, much more 
easily, and could be made to take a keener edge than the flint 
and bone weapons now in use; and there were countless other 
purposes to which it might be put. Once men had learned 
how to do these things, they would be at one leap a hundred 
times farther in advance of the present age than the present 
[ 103 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


age was in advance of that when bone and horn implements 
were unknown, but everything had to be made of flint or wood. 
The cliffs where they were sitting must be full of this metal, 
and there was no telling how much of it there might be under¬ 
ground; the supply must be practically unlimited. 

As Ruig sat dumfounded by the strangeness of this new 
idea, and utterly unable to realize all that it must mean, Bram 
went on to speak of other things; and Ruig’s astonishment 
increased as he now saw that what people took to be in Bram 
an uncanny power, was really nothing but unusual intelli¬ 
gence, and the ability to think and to express his thoughts in 
a logical and orderly way. 

For example: Bram was now speaking of the great aban¬ 
doned camp some miles away, where successive generations 
of hunters had made their headquarters, settling down in 
the same place for scores, even hundreds, of years, for the 
sake of the game, principally wild horses, which had once 
abounded there. Beneath the soil all about the camp were 
thousands and thousands of skeletons of horses, in layer upon 
layer; and now the game had been all killed off, and the 
people themselves had been forced to migrate in order to 
escape starvation. Just as long as men act in such short¬ 
sighted ways, said Bram, they will always be wanderers, with 
no permanent home. How much better to spare the game and 
allow it to increase, instead of slaughtering twenty times as 
much as can possibly be used, and leaving it to rot on the 
prairie! 

Here Bram paused for a moment and when he went on 
it was with so astonishing a proposition that Ruig could 
scarcely believe his ears. 

Why not, said Bram, catch some of these wild horses and 
tame them, making them carry the loads when the tribe 
[ 104 ] 


BRAM THE PROPHET 


moved, instead of burdening their own backs with them? 
Why not learn to ride on the horses, and thus be able to travel 
faster and farther, and with less fatigue, than was possible 
for any one now? Why not tame some of the wild dogs, too, 
and make of them companions and friends, training them to 
guard the huts, and to pull down game, instead of hunting 
them as wolves are hunted, for the purpose of killing them 
off? Why not learn how to grow the berries and fruits now 
found in a wild state, and stripped wholesale from the bushes 
and trees until the supply was absolutely exhausted? 

If such things as these were done, said Bram—and there 
was no reason why they should not all be done—think what 
the result would be upon the tribe. They could pick some 
good spot and settle down permanently; there would always 
be game in the neighborhood; there would always be a supply 
of fruits and berries; they would have the assistance of the 
dogs and horses in hunting, and in many other ways as well. 
No longer being anxious about their food supply, they would 
have leisure to get out the metal from the rock, and work it. 
They could improve the building of the huts, and the arrange¬ 
ment of the village. They could surround it with a stockade 
for protection, a thing which now was hardly worth the effort, 
since they were compelled to move every little while to find 
new hunting grounds. In other words, life would be a settled 
and permanent thing, orderly in its methods, instead of as 
now haphazard, temporary and confused; and they would have 
time to develop and improve themselves in a great many ways, 
as they could never do as long as life was an anxious struggle 
from day to day to maintain existence and to secure the bare 
necessities of life, exhausting in this effort every energy and 
leaving neither time nor strength to use in other ways. But 
if the tribe could be sure of plenty of food from its own flocks 
[ 105 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


and its own gardens; if it could economize both time and 
strength through the help of the animals; and if it could uti¬ 
lize the metal in such ways as Bram had suggested; then, 
said he, it might go on to invent or discover things of which it 
now had never dreamed, and find methods of living which 
would make it a hundred times more comfortable and power¬ 
ful, and able to hold its own without worry against all enemies 
—beasts, climate, or men. 

Bram left off speaking, and fixed Ruig with his strange 
glance. After a few moments, however, he appeared to have 
forgotten all about him, and paid no attention when the boy 
got up from his place and slipped away through the gathering 
dusk. 


[ 106 ] 


A GREAT DISCOVERY 





























































































CHAPTER XIII 
A Great Discovery 


R UIG and the boys used sometimes to go fishing in the 
stream which ran by the edge of the camp, and 
which when swollen by the spring and fall rains or 
by the melting snow became almost a river. Ordinarily, how¬ 
ever, it was quiet enough, and not any wider than you could 
toss a good-sized rock across without much effort. The boys 
would hunt out the eddies under the bank, and the quieter 
spots where the stream widened into a pool, and there they 
would drop in their tackle, and often bring home a creditable 
catch. 

Their line was a thin string made by twisting the fibers of 
water-plants, as the women knew how to do, or perhaps a 
number of fine sinews fastened together. A stick served for a 
fishing rod; but hooks they had none. Instead they used a 
straight bit of bone an inch or so in length, sharpened at both 
ends, and having a groove around it at the middle, so that the 
line mi ght be tied to it without danger of slipping. The bait 
was stuck on this sharpened bit of bone; but as this had no 
barb on it, but was perfectly smooth, the fish could very easily 
steal the bait without much danger to themselves, unless they 
were greedy enough to bolt the whole thing, in which case the 
bone would be likely to stick crosswise in their gullet and hold 

them. , 

Many a good fish, however, slipped off and was lost, so 

that this sport was not very popular among the boys, who were 
naturally impatient; not nearly as popular as hunting; nor 
[ 109 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


was it made much of by the men, for game was so plentiful 
that all one needed to do was to go out a little way from camp 
and knock it over. 

The fish then, being little disturbed, multiplied very 
rapidly, and the pools and eddies were full of big fellows who 
could be plainly seen in the deep clear water. Ruig used to 
love to lie on his stomach on the bank and look down on them, 
seeing them dart to and fro with motions of their fins so quick 
that the eye could scarcely follow them; or poise themselves 
motionless just above the bottom, heads upstream, main¬ 
taining position against the current by means of a gentle scull¬ 
ing of their tails. Toward evening, or on cloudy days, they 
would swim nearer the surface, and sometimes leap partly 
out of the water in pursuit of gnats and flies. 

Ruig was a good swimmer, and had often thought that he 
would like to be a fish; but as he watched the big fellows 
inhabiting the pools, he began by degrees to entertain a wish 
of a different sort, namely, that he had some kind of tackle 
by means of which he might pull them up, without losing 
them just as they reached the surface of the water. Like every 
fisherman, he imagined these to be the very biggest of all; and 
he used to dream of bringing home a catch in which each fish 
was so long that he had to hold it up at arm’s length to keep 
its tail from dragging on the ground. This, he thought, might 
really become true, if he had the right kind of tackle; and he 
often tried to think of some way in which his fishing gear 
might be improved. 

Now and then he and the other boys had thrown javelins 
at some huge grandfather of a fish seen near the surface, or 
had tried to transfix him with a spear; but as the points of 
both spear and javelin were straight and smooth, even when 
a fish was struck, the weapon pulled right out again, with no 
[ 110 ] 


A GREAT DISCOVERY 


result except the wounding of the fish, which might indeed be 
found afterward floating belly uppermost in an eddy of the 
stream, but which more often disappeared in deep water leav¬ 
ing a trail of bloody bubbles behind. 

Bram, the prophet, had foretold the ultimate extinction of 
game because of the wasteful methods of the hunters, who 
generally killed a great deal more than they could use, with 
no thought for the future. Ruig had noticed this more than 
once, when he had seen the carcass of a deer or of a wild horse 
left where it fell, only a few small cuts of meat being taken 
from the choicest parts, and the rest left to spoil, or to feed the 
hyenas or the buzzards. It was with this thought in mind that 
he was one day lying according to his habit on the bank of the 
river, basking in the sun, and idly watching the fish as they 
glided about below him in the clear depths of the water. What 
a vast number there must be in there! How rapidly they mul¬ 
tiplied, and how fast they grew! There was an inexhaustible 
supply of good food there, if it could only be gotten out; and 
Ruig racked his brain to devise some way in which this might 
be accomplished. As nothing occurred to him just then, how¬ 
ever, he strung a couple of fish which he had pulled up earlier 
in the afternoon on a long switch, from which he had trimmed 
off all the twigs except one stub at the lower end, which pro¬ 
jected like the short side of a V, the long side being the 
switch itself. Slipping this longer end through the gills of a 
fish, and out through its mouth, he would slide it smoothly 
down along the switch until it brought up against the stub, 
which prevented it from falling off. 

On reaching home, Ruig proceeded to take his catch off 
this carrier, naturally enough drawing them up along the 
switch instead of trying to get them off over the stub at the 
lower end; and as he did this, a great idea flashed upon him— 

[HI] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


an idea which would work a revolution in fishing, would 
make a vast difference in hunting, which would be deeply 
affected by it; and would create a new habit in the life of the 
entire tribe. Not that Ruig saw all this at the time; all that 
he saw was that a crooked bone shaped like a V might be 
used on the fish-line instead of the straight bone tied by the 
middle to the string, which would instead be fastened to one 
arm of the V; the bait would be stuck upon the other arm; 
and once a fish got this crooked bone in its mouth, there was 
a good chance that it could be pulled up, and its struggles 
would only serve to hook it more deeply still. 

It was too late that evening to do what Ruig wanted to do, 
but almost before daylight the following morning he was out 
with a flint carver and a piece of bone, trying to shape the 
new implement as he saw it with his mind’s eye. He was 
too excited, and too much in a hurry to make a smooth and 
complete job; but in some fashion he did trim his bit of bone 
into the shape he wanted, and scampered away to the river to 
try out his new invention. 

Passing his line through a tiny hole which he had drilled 
in the longer arm of his bone V, he impaled a shred of meat 
upon the other, and then with his heart in his mouth swung 
his fine over into the stream. Letting it sink part way down 
toward the bottom, he then very carefully drew it up a trifle, 
and repeated the process several times without any result. 
He had become so accustomed to losing his bait that he was 
afraid this had happened again, and began to pull in to see if 
such was the case; when just as his hook was about to break 
the surface, there came a rush and a splash; his pole was 
almost dragged from his hand; and, as involuntarily he jerked 
it toward him, he experienced the thrill which every fisher¬ 
man knows—the sensation of a weight at the end of the line; 

[112] 


A GREAT DISCOVERY 


a live weight, which plunged and fought him until his wrist 
was lame and his palm sore with the friction of his pole. But 
Ruig held fast, and at last pulled his prize out upon the bank 
—a silver monster half as long as his arm. Eagerly he bent 
over him—and saw that his invention had in this case at 
least proved a success, for the curved point of the hook had 
struck into one side of the upper jaw, and emerging through 
the eye-socket, had hung the fish up in such a way that 
he had no possible chance of shaking free. As long as 
the line held, he was caught; and the twisted sinew was 
strong. 

Elated by this first success, Ruig tried again; and although 
to his surprise he lost one or two fish, still he hooked four or 
five sizable ones, and carried them home in triumph, to show 
them to his father, and tell him of his new invention, which he 
exhibited with all an inventor’s pride. 

Ruig’s father was a man of few words, and said nothing 
very much at first, but only reached out his hand for the hook, 
rude and clumsy as it was, turning it over and studying it 
carefully on every side. He ran his thumb along it, tried its 
point, examined the eye into which the line was fastened, and 
then picking up one of Ruig’s fish, he passed the hook through 
its jaw, and holding it off the ground by means of the line, 
shook it in order to see whether it was easy to dislodge the 
fish. After several trials, it seemed clear that only when there 
was a steady strain upon the line could one feel reasonably 
sure of landing his catch; for the upward turn of the hook was 
smooth, like the old-fashioned straight bone; and a leap on 
the part of the fish, or a momentary slackening of the line, 
might result in the slipping of the game from the hook. As 
Ruig studied this, he could understand how even with this 
new contrivance a number of his fish had gotten away; and 

[113] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


he realized that there was something more needed, to make 
loss practically impossible once the hook was in. 

He pondered this very thoughtfully, but could get no 
light upon it; nor could his father, although he sat for a 
long while with the hook in one hand and his flint knife in the 
other. Ruig meanwhile busied himself in shaping a much 
smaller hook, which this time he did very neatly; and then 
taking his first attempt from his father in order to compare 
the two, he laid them side by side in the palm of his hand, 
altering their relative position in different ways without any 
special object in doing so. 

Idly his father looked on; when suddenly he caught Ruig’s 
wrist as he was about to shift the hooks once more, studied 
their position for a moment, then nodded his head, and taking 
from his pouch a flat piece of bone, the shoulder-blade of 
some animal, he began to shape it rapidly with his flint knife. 
Ruig watched him, wondering what he was about; and soon 
he saw that his father had hit upon the solution of the problem. 
This new hook, as it took final shape, was almost exactly like 
his first attempt; only, instead of being smooth, just tapering 
to a point, this point bent back upon itself at an acute angle, 
thus making a very small inverted V upon the short arm of the 
larger V which was represented by the hook. The large V 
would easily pierce the jaw of the fish; but it would be pre¬ 
vented from slipping out again by the barb, or small V, which 
would catch and hold it. 

Eager to test the idea, the two inventors hastened once 
more to the river and, having pulled up several fish without 
losing one, found that even when one wanted to get the hook 
out it was not easily done on account of the barb. 

News of the invention spread rapidly through the camp; 
and soon nearly all the boys, as well as many of the men, had 
[ 114 ] 


A GREAT DISCOVERY 


whittled out for themselves hooks on the improved pattern, 
and were trying their luck along the river. Before night, 
Ruig’s father had gone a step further in the application of the 
new idea. He had made a bone tip for a javelin with a barb 
on it like that on the fish-hook; and poising this above the 
pool in which the biggest fish loved to lurk, he harpooned one 
of them, and hauled him out in triumph by means of the long 
shaft which he held in his hand. By the next day Huth had 
filed tiny barbs on his arrow-heads; and Narg had improved 
upon the single-barbed harpoon by cutting three or four barbs 
on either side of the blade of his favorite spear. 

Thus the simple idea which had come to the mind of Ruig 
by noting the angle made by a switch and a twig, had pro¬ 
duced as its result a new pattern of hunting weapon much 
more efficacious than the old one with its straight point, which 
made it necessary to kill the game by a series of stabs. Now 
the weapon would remain in the wound, imbedded in the flesh, 
or locked behind the ribs, bringing the animal down much 
more quickly than before; while the barbed hook had added, 
it might almost be said, an entire new department to the hunt, 
by insuring in a very short time the catch of a quantity of 
fish sufficient to justify the industry of smoking or curing them 
on raised platforms over the fire. In a small way this had been 
done before; but now it became a principal occupation, in 
which even the children might help; and the stock of food 
thus prepared was stored carefully away against the long 
months of winter, when the river was locked in ice, and game 
was scarce and poor. 


[115] 







THE BATTLE OF THE MONSTERS 



































CHAPTER XIV 

The Battle of the Monsters 

I T was the custom in the camp for the boys to be exercised 
for at least a couple of hours each day in the use of the 
various weapons, for in more than one sense their lives 
depended upon skill with the javelin, the spear, the axe, and 
even the throwing-stone. They were dependent upon game for 
food, and, with the exception of a few kinds of animals usually 
caught in traps, this game supply must be procured through 
the use of weapons. 

In another sense also life depended upon this skill; for it 
might become necessary for them to defend themselves with 
axe and spear against the attack of a boar, a wolf, or even a 
woolly rhinoceros. The mammoth, bear, and tiger were dan¬ 
gerous only when roused or cornered; but even these they 
might sometime be compelled to face; and so no pains were 
spared by the hunters to instruct the boys in the proper 
handling of their weapons. 

Days when the men were away upon expeditions, the boys 
would frequently organize expeditions of their own, and led 
by the older ones, they would go trailing along the paths 
which led in all directions from the drinking-places, hunting 
small animals, such as rabbits, which were very numerous 
along the edge of the woods, or, best of all, making believe 
that they were after a saber-tooth or a rhinoceros, which they 
would eventually surround and make an end of with their 
spears and darts. 

At such times as these the boys would really act as hun- 

[ 119 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


ters should, for they had been well drilled in such matters as 
keeping to leeward of the game, so that their scent might not 
betray them; in crawling flat on their stomachs through the 
grass with hardly a ripple to mark their passage; and in 
spreading out fanwise or in a circle in order to attack their 
quarry from all sides at once. 

On one particular occasion, the boys had traveled to a 
water-hole a couple of miles from the village where game of 
all kinds used to come down to drink. They were supposedly 
in pursuit of a mammoth which had been several times seen 
in the neighborhood, and was believed to have his home near 
by; and taking proper precautions, they were all lying low 
behind a ridge not far from the water-hole, a gentle air fanning 
their faces as they gazed out eagerly through a fringe of grass 
to watch for their prey. 

On the opposite side of the pool, the ground rose grad¬ 
ually to a small plateau a couple of hundred yards long, and 
about as wide, and beyond this again it sloped gently up 
toward some woods which stood a quarter of a mile farther on. 
It was toward these woods that the boys were looking; for out 
from among the big trees might appear at any moment the 
giant beast which they were supposed to be stalking. Who 
could tell but he might actually show himself, and a genuine 
hunt be on, instead of the sham one which their imagination 
had pictured? Delicious shivers traveled up and down the 
spines of the young hunters as they waited; and each one 
planned what he would do in case reality took the place of 
fancy. 

It was when their eyes were becoming blinded by being 
constantly strained upon one point, and when the sun, now 
almost directly overhead, was commencing to scorch their 
naked backs, that an extraordinary thing occurred; and the 
[ 120 ] 


THE BATTLE OF THE MONSTERS 


boys became witnesses of a sight so unusual and so stupen¬ 
dous that the oldest hunter had never seen one like it, nor 
heard of its happening before. 

As they still gazed toward the distant woods, out from 
among the trees slowly advanced the mammoth of their 
dreams. Leisurely he swung along the well-worn trail leading 
to the water-hole, his trunk swaying before him, his ears fan¬ 
ning away the swarms of flies which hung around him, the 
immense tusks which protruded from his jaws curling grace¬ 
fully up and back upon themselves like hoops of ivory. As 
the great beast came on, he grumbled gently in his throat, in 
anticipation perhaps of the pleasant drink which awaited him, 
or of the bath which he would take in the pool, rolling in the 
cool mud, and spraying his heated flanks with water. The 
drink, however, he was destined not to have; and the bath 
which he indeed took was to be his last. 

The mammoth had reached the little plateau, and was 
about to cross it and descend the slope to the water-hole, when 
another actor suddenly made his appearance upon the scene. 
Across the meadow from the right, and in the direction of the 
plateau, came thundering amid a cloud of dust a stocky low- 
built beast, with head held low, wicked eyes shining through 
the dust, the great horn upon his snout identifying him as the 
woolly rhinoceros—an animal which none of the boys had 
ever seen, for he was scarce in this region, particularly in 
summer, the thickness of his coat driving him northward dur¬ 
ing the warm season, to return again in winter to his old 
haunts. For what reason this individual rhino had remained 
so late, is unknown; but his behavior was so extraordinary as 
to make it seem probable that he was crazed by the heat. 

Like the mammoth, the rhino was a vegetarian, feeding on 
grasses, the stems of plants, and the tender leaves and shoots 
[ 121 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


of young trees, which his long flexible upper lip enabled him 
to pluck. In spite of his vicious appearance and his formid¬ 
able horn, he was not a natural fighter, but would generally 
take to his heels at sight of an enemy, his muscular legs car¬ 
rying him over the ground at an astonishing pace. For all 
these reasons, the conduct of the rhino on this occasion was 
entirely out of character. 

Coming at full gallop, he pulled up at the edge of the 
plateau, where the mammoth stood facing him in apparent 
astonishment; and throwing up his head, uttered a piercing 
squeal of anger which carried in it a challenge to battle. 

He was certainly an awkward and an ugly beast. His head 
was chunky, with a long snout, at the end of which the 
pointed sensitive upper lip kept quivering like the nose of a 
rabbit. His eyes were very small, and set in the sides of his 
head in such a way that looking straight ahead he got only an 
imperfect idea of the objects at which he was looking. His 
ears were disproportionately long, and stuck out ridiculously 
at right angles to the skull. As he faced the mammoth, he 
seemed at first glance a ludicrous sight; and still he created 
an impression of ferocity and power which made it certain 
that he would prove a formidable antagonist. 

Pawing the ground impatiently with his foot, the rhinoc¬ 
eros waited; then, as the mammoth still made no move, he 
lowered once more his head, elevated his tail, and charged 
straight at his enormous foe; which seemed rooted to the spot 
in fear or indecision. With staring eyes the boys awaited the 
shock of this homed thunderbolt, which seemed destined to 
lacerate the flanks of the mammoth to ribbons, or to overthrow 
him, huge as he was, by mere force of impact. But just before 
the rhino reached him, the mammoth with incredible agility 
whirled in his tracks, and the rhino was carried by his mo- 
[ 122 ] 


THE BATTLE OF THE MONSTERS 


mentum several rods past his objective. Bracing his forefeet 
and sliding in order to check himself, he too whirled about 
and a second time launched his attack. Again the mammoth 
sidestepped, and his enemy passed him in his rush. But the 
third time, either the rhino was more agile or the mammoth 
too slow; for this time the great horn opened a red furrow in 
the hairy flank. 

A new phase of the battle was now revealed; for with the 
feel of the wound, the mammoth, now thoroughly aroused, 
and infuriated by the pain, became the aggressor. He no 
longer tried merely to evade his enemy’s attack, but took the 
offensive. The next rush he met halfway and head on. 
Throwing forward his immense bulk, and lowering his fore¬ 
head, he caught the rhino under the fore-shoulder with one of 
his tusks, and hurled him aside so that he nearly rolled upon 
the ground. Recovering himself by a mighty effort, more 
cautiously now the rhino came on. He had recourse to all 
manner of tricks. He feinted and drew back; he circled about 
his foe and dashed in now from this quarter, now from that, 
his short sinewy legs working like pistons, and carrying him 
like steel springs which never tired. But always he met the 
huge massive front; always the great tusks, their reach longer 
than that of his horn, fended him off; and once they threw 
him with a shock that racked him through and through. 

The heat now began to tell upon both combatants, and 
as though by mutual agreement they abandoned hostilities 
for a moment, and stood panting, with drooping heads and 
heaving flanks. And now the crisis came: the mammoth was 
off his guard through the exhaustion of battle; and in a second 
the rhino sprang forward, turned sharply in just as it seemed 
that he was about to pass his adversary, and buried his long 
horn to the root in the abdomen of his luckless foe. 

[ 123 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


In agony the mammoth sank to his knees. And now the 
watching boys witnessed the extraordinary close of the extraor¬ 
dinary duel, which was in point of fact a victory for neither one 
of the contestants, but a draw; for although the mammoth 
tried in vain to free himself from the frightful weapon which 
pierced his vitals, the rhino was unable to escape from under 
the vast weight of his kneeling antagonist, which was gradually 
crushing him, head and shoulders, to the earth. Fruitlessly 
the rhino squealed and struggled; fruitlessly the mammoth 
sought bellowing to regain his feet. Both were alike helpless; 
slowly the great bulk sank lower and lower; feebler and 
feebler became the struggles of the crushed rhinoceros; and 
at last the mountain of flesh buried under it the redoubtable 
foe which had let out its life through the gaping wound now 
visible in its belly. 

The rhino was dead; the mammoth was dying; but in the 
last agony the great beast heaved itself to its feet, lurched 
down along the trail until it stood deep in the pool, sprayed 
itself once through its trunk with water mixed with bloody 
foam; then sank slowly sidewise beneath the surface until 
it disappeared from sight. A few bubbles rose and broke; the 
ripples spread and died upon the shore. The mammoth, 
splendid even in defeat, had met death as became the gallant 
fighter that he was. 

Upon the plateau, a shapeless heap of bones and hide, the 
great horn broken from the skull, lay all that remained of the 
aggressor in the battle of the monsters. 


[ 124 ] 


THE MIGHTY BRIGHT ONE 





















































CHAPTER XV 
The Mighty Bright One 

T HERE were some things about which, although he saw 
them every day, Ruig never ceased to wonder, for 
they were always just as strange and inexplicable. 
Chief among these was the sun. 

There was so much about the sun which gave cause for 
wonder. For one thing, it was always on hand. Cloudy 
days might hide it, but it never failed to appear again; and 
no matter how long it might be out of sight, still it never got 
lost, and always showed up as good as ever, and apparently 
quite indifferent to the fact that the stormy weather had pre¬ 
tended to drown it out. 

Then again, the sun was so very regular in its habits. It 
did not show itself at one point of the horizon this morning and 
at some other point tomorrow morning, but calmly rose in its 
accustomed place, marched across the sky and went down 
behind the hill on the other side as though it could not do any¬ 
thing else even if it tried. This fact gave you a feeling of 
security. You could always depend upon the sun, no matter 
what might happen anywhere else. 

There were other things beside the sun, of course, which 
caused wonder. There was, for instance, the wind, which you 
could not see as you could the sun, but which had force in it, 
and could howl around the hut at night, or roar among the 
trees until you might believe that a hundred mammoths were 
trumpeting over there on the hillside. The wind did not begin 
nor end anywhere in particular. It came and went, rose and 
[ 127 ] 


STORIES OF THE STOME AGE 


dropped, just as it happened, and without any system; and so, 
while Ruig wondered about the wind almost as much as he 
did about the sun, he got no comfort out of it, rather feeling a 
little afraid of it, because one could never tell just what it was 
going to do. 

Then there were the thunder and lightning, which were 
the most scary of all, but not the most wonderful, for they 
seemed accidental almost, as though something had tempo¬ 
rarily gone wrong in the sky; but because they did not come 
very often, nor last very long, Ruig did not give them very 
much attention after they were over. 

Then, too, there was water, which had such a persistent 
habit of running down hill, and which you could not pick up 
in your fingers, although to look at it it seemed so solid. And 
of course there was fire, which had peculiarities of its own, and 
uses which you could not get along without. Since, however, 
Ruig had learned how to make fire for himself, he did not stand 
in awe of it as he once had; but the more he thought about the 
sun, the more wonderful that seemed. He could not under¬ 
stand it nor account for it in any way at all; and so after a 
while he began to think of it as though it were a person, 
instead of a thing—for it was so systematic, and apparently so 
intelligent that it seemed to make up its mind to act in a 
certain manner, and then go ahead and carry out its purpose, 
not because it was obliged to, but because it chose to do so. 

It is true that Ruig thought about other things in the world 
of nature as having some kind of personality, or as taking 
place through the will of some person. The wind might be 
the breath of an invisible giant. The thunder and lightning 
might be this giant striking fire with his flint. Rain might be 
poured out of an immense jug up in the sky. When the trees 
along the edge of the woods bowed and rustled, it seemed as 
[ 128 ] 


THE MIGHTY BRIGHT ONE 


though they were people whispering to one another. The 
river and the spring, full of life and motion and mystery, 
might each have some kind of being who was responsible for 
them. But most of all Ruig had this feeling about the sun, 
because of its majesty, constancy, and power. 

Those times of year when the sun was nearest, and its rays 
most direct, were the times of life and growth in the woods 
and fields. Without the sun there would be no spring nor 
summer, but everything would be hard and cold and barren. 
The sun was the maker of warmth and health and vigor. It 
was the source and fountain of them. It was the great friend 
and helper of all living things—most of all the friend and 
helper of man; and with this conviction rooted in his mind, 
Ruig’s feeling toward the sun became one of awe and worship. 

This feeling was different in kind from any which he had 
ever had before. Something like awe, it is true, he had felt 
in the presence of the great animals which he had seen; but 
these could be reached and conquered, in spite of their bulk 
and power. He had a feeling of immense admiration for the 
famous hunters of the tribe, with their huge frames and bulg¬ 
ing muscles. Still he believed it only a question of time when 
he would be like them. But toward the sun, his feeling of 
reverence was based upon the conviction that here was a 
power and an intelligence, and a beneficence, which could be 
accounted for only through the supposition that they were 
qualities of a person, who was incalculably wiser, stronger, 
and more well-disposed than any other living creature. This 
person must be supreme. No matter what men might try to 
do to him, he could not be reached or controlled. He was so 
serene, so majestic, so silent in all his ways, that it made men 
appear very small and mean by comparison; for Ruig soon 
learned that these feelings of his were shared by all the other 
[ 129 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


members of the tribe. To them the sun was a god—distant, 
mighty, inscrutable—who did not consult men nor stand in 
need of them, but went on about his business as though they 
did not exist. It was good to reverence him and seek his 
favor; for who could tell but he might some day become angry, 
and withdraw himself, leaving them in the cold and darkness 
of perpetual winter and night. 

It had therefore become the custom of the tribe to go out 
in groups at early dawn, and just as the upper rim of the sun 
became visible above the eastern horizon, to lift their arms to 
him in supplication for the continuance of his favor. Then 
they would bow themselves humbly to the ground, all but the 
eldest, who would remain standing in the attitude of supplica¬ 
tion, until the sun was fully in the sky; when they would rise 
and return to their huts, sure for a time at least of the good¬ 
will of their god. 

Ruig thought a good deal about this matter as he played 
around with the other boys, or as he lay awake at night upon 
his couch of skins; and he became certain in his own mind 
that he was surrounded by unseen forces which would never 
change. Why was it that you could not dig a hole in water? 
Why did water always insist upon running down hill? Why 
did a rock always fall to the ground at last, no matter how 
high and how far you might throw it? Something made these 
things 50, and you could not get around it. Something made 
a boy grow taller and stronger as he played and exercised in 
the open air; something made him more and more skilful in 
casting throwing-stone or javelin, until it became like second 
nature to him, and no longer required special effort or thought. 

These invisible forces were all about you; and there was 
this to be remembered—they were always for you, if you 
were on their side. 


[ 130 ] 



Worshiping The Sun-God 

















THE MIGHTY BRIGHT ONE 


To Ruig, this was a great idea, and it gave him a feeling of 
security and confidence such as he had never had before. To 
side with Nature, not to go against her, was the course which 
was both wise and safe. To go against Nature, was the sure 
road to all kinds of trouble and failure. The whole world was 
yours if you were with it, working in harmony with its laws; 
and in this thought was laid the first real foundation-stone in 
the character of the boy who was soon to become a man. 


[ 131 ] 






































STRANGE VISITORS 









































CHAPTER XVI 
Strange Visitors 

R IJIG had been out one day with his bow and arrows, 
patterned after those which Huth had invented, and 
with which he had already attained a considerable 
degree of skill. It was dusk when he returned home, and he 
was surprised to find that his father was not in the hut. Ruig 
went around the neighborhood, thinking that he might be 
making some one a visit; but he discovered that all the men 
were away—and this was a most unusual thing. All that he 
could find out on making inquiries was, that some one had 
come into camp just at nightfall, and that the men had all 
gone off to see and talk with the stranger. Ruig found them 
gathered in a wide circle about a fire, before which squatted a 
miserable figure of a man, with a wild mop of tangled hair 
falling into his eyes, an emaciated body half-covered by a 
mangy wolf-skin, and bandy legs too short in proportion to the 
rest of him, while his arms on the contrary seemed abnormally 
long. 

Ruig at once noticed that the shape of this man’s head was 
very different from those of his own tribe, the forehead being 
low and the face narrow; while from under the matted hair 
the eyes peered out with the piercing look seen in those of 
wild animals—the whole aspect being something like that of 
a hyena, mean and cruel. 

Some one was speaking to the stranger when Ruig joined 
the group about the fire, and evidently trying to find out 
whence he came, whether he was alone, or one of a party, how 
[ 135 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


far he had come, and so forth; but while the man looked 
eagerly at his questioner and appeared to be doing his best to 
understand, he always shook his head, and at last made a 
gesture of despair, and turned away, as much as to say that 
it was no use. 

An empty platter on the ground near by showed that food 
had been offered to the stranger; and now he seemed to wish 
to rest; for he rolled himself in his tattered wolf-skin and lay 
down with his feet toward the fire, becoming apparently 
plunged in sleep in a moment. 

After seeing to it that there was plenty of wood with which 
to replenish the fire, for the night was chilly, and leaving an 
extra robe or two where the stranger could draw them over him 
if need be, the others withdrew and left him to himself, which 
was what he seemed to want; but that night guards were posted 
round the camp, something which within Ruig’s remembrance 
had never been done before. The chiefs were evidently sus¬ 
picious lest there might be a band of enemies lurking near by, 
having sent in one of their number as a spy, and they had no 
intention of being taken by surprise in a night attack. They 
had at the same time shown every courtesy and attention to 
the stranger, spy though he might be, for this was an invariable 
custom which admitted no exceptions. 

To the younger members of the tribe, the advent of a 
visitor was a cause of a great deal of interest and excitement, 
for most of them had never seen a human being except those 
of their own village; and they were eager for daylight to come 
that they might study the newcomer at close quarters. Ruig, 
for one, scarcely slept at all, and as soon as it was light enough 
to see, he was out of the hut and away for the place where he 
had last seen the guest. Early as he was, however, the other 
had been earlier still, for he found the fire built up, but the 
[ 136 ] 


STRANGE VISITORS 


man nowhere to be seen. Not knowing what else to do, Ruig 
sat down on the skin robes and waited; and in a little while 
the man appeared, coming from the direction of the river, 
and carrying two or three sizable fish, with his fingers hooked 
into their gills. In his left hand the stranger had a harpoon 
or spear, it was hard to tell which, until reaching the fire, he 
threw down his weapon, and paying no attention whatever to 
Ruig, drew a flint knife and commenced to clean his fish. Ruig 
meantime cast curious glances toward the harpoon, which 
was utterly unlike any in use in his own tribe. It seemed at 
first to be just a lance with a bone point; but the point beside 
being strongly barbed, had at one edge an eye, into which was 
tied the end of a thin cord, which, neatly coiled, lay on the 
ground near by. The purpose of this contrivance it was hard 
to guess, for one would naturally suppose that the cord would 
be fastened to the shaft of the harpoon, and not to the head 
or point. Meanwhile, the other gave him no help; but having 
roughly dressed his fish, he stuck them on sticks in front of 
the fire to cook, while he himself squatted on his heels and 
watched them without a word. 

In this position, his disproportionately long arms rested 
on the ground; and Ruig experienced a strange sensation when 
he noticed that the hands lay with the palms up instead of 
down, as was natural to ordinary human beings. 

When the fish were hardly more than warmed through, 
the stranger seized them from the fire, and wolfed them down 
without ceremony. Then he rubbed his stomach with both 
hands, with a comical expression of satisfaction on his wizened 
face; and for the first time cast at Ruig across the fire a glance 
which seemed almost friendly. 

Before making any advances, however, Ruig studied the 
man more closely, for it was by this time light enough to see 
[ 137 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


him pretty well. He saw that he had powerful arms and shoul¬ 
ders, while his legs seemed weak and undeveloped, the calves 
being thin and flat, as though their owner were unused to walk¬ 
ing and running. Either this person was lazy, or else there 
was something the matter with him—Ruig could not make 
up his mind just what. He made bold to step around and lay 
a hand on the stranger’s harpoon, all the time keeping his 
eyes on the other’s face with an expression of inquiry, as 
though asking permission to examine the weapon. The 
other’s glance went to the harpoon, then back to Ruig’s face; 
when apparently satisfied with what he saw, he made an in¬ 
different gesture with his hand, and turned away to get more 
wood for the fire. 

Eagerly Ruig drew the harpoon toward him and closely 
examined it. It was well made, the shaft slender and straight, 
the bone head carefully shaped and smoothly finished. Ruig 
still failed to understand the eye with its cord; but as he 
handled the weapon he noticed that the head had an unusually 
long neck, the shaft fitting into it for something like eight 
inches; but it did not fit tightly, indeed did not seem intended 
to, for it slipped out very easily. Ruig fitted the two parts 
together and separated them a number of times without getting 
any light upon the problem, when suddenly it came to him. 
In harpooning a fish, the shaft always left the hand; if the 
fish was struck, sometimes the whole weapon was lost; but 
by means of this new contrivance, you threw the harpoon, but 
retained the end of the cord in your left hand. The shaft, 
slipping from the loose socket, would float on the water and 
could be recovered; while the fish, at the end of the cord which 
was fastened to the harpoon-head, could either be played until 
he was tired out, or hauled in at once hand over hand, as would 
usually be done if he was well struck. Ruig could see what 
[ 138 ] 


STRANGE VISITORS 


a great idea this was, and wondered very much that none of his 
own tribe had ever thought of it; for this stranger was far 
beneath them in intelligence, as he certainly was in physique. 

Having mended his fire, the other once more squatted down 
and idly watched Ruig in his study of the improved harpoon. 
Suddenly wild cries arose from the direction of the river, 
mingled with the note of some animal which Ruig had never 
heard before. It reminded him of the wolf, yet it was not a 
long-drawn howl, but shorter, sharper, more staccato. The 
guards came running from all directions; Ruig himself sprang 
to his feet; and as for the stranger, he was electrified. Bound¬ 
ing up, he darted toward the quarter whence the shouting 
came; and in a moment he reappeared in the midst of a group 
of three others, all clinging together and jabbering like a bunch 
of monkeys, while an animal somewhat resembling a wolf 
circled around them with yelps of excitement and joy. 

Soon they came up to the fire, paying no attention to any 
one but themselves, and with no let-up in their chattering and 
gesticulation. The wondering guards, with an increasing 
crowd of spectators from the camp, attracted by the noise, 
stood looking on; but nobody could understand a word, nor 
make out what all the fuss was about. 

Finally the newcomers squatted together at the fire, and 
the strange animal lay down near them, his jaws open and his 
tongue lolling out. Ruig looked him over with much interest. 
He had seen wolves, but this was not a wolf. The ears were 
shorter and the muzzle less pointed, nor did the eyes have the 
cruel and pitiless look seen in those of the wolf. And yet the 
animal resembled a wolf all the same. 

Turning his attention to the men, Ruig saw that they had 
the same characteristics as the first stranger, heavy shoulders, 
thin and bandy legs, low foreheads and narrow skulls, the 
[ 139 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


whole aspect being unlike anything Ruig had ever seen. Their 
hair, too, was matted and woolly, that of Ruig’s tribe being 
fine and straight. The men had laid their weapons down by 
the fire, and these were more or less like those of the village, 
the peculiar harpoon being the only exception. 

Presently Bram appeared, pushing through the crowd; and 
making his way to the fire, he too squatted down like the 
strangers, and listened for a while to their chatter. After a 
few moments he dropped a single word. Dead silence fol¬ 
lowed, while the visitors stared at him with open mouths: 
then they all began again worse than ever, and this time all 
talking at Bram instead of at one another. Bram listened 
with a grim smile; then rising to his feet and silencing them 
with a gesture, he spoke slowly and distinctly a few words. 
Excitedly one of the others replied. Again he questioned, and 
again they answered; until he finally seemed satisfied, and 
motioned them to be silent; and then turning to the spectators 
he told them what had been said. 

These strangers, it seemed, lived a very long way to the 
north, how far none of them exactly knew; but it was very 
far. They dwelt in huts built upon piles driven into the bed 
of a lake, entered by ladders. They lived mostly by fishing, 
which they carried on from boats—logs hollowed out by means 
of fire and chisel so that they would float and hold one or two 
men. A few months ago, a violent epidemic had carried off 
over half of the settlement; and while they were in this en¬ 
feebled condition a neighboring tribe had attacked them and 
killed all but a handful, themselves among the number, who 
had escaped in their boats through the marshes. Finally, 
leaving their boats, they had made their way on foot for very 
many days, working always toward the south, and had become 
separated while hunting, the first arrival in the camp here 
[ 140 ] 


STRANGE VISITORS 


being their head-man or chief, whom they had given up for 
lost until their dog had found and followed his trail. Bram 
further explained that living so much in boats their legs 
became thin and bent, while continual exercise with the pad¬ 
dles gave them their magnificent arms and shoulders. Long 
long ago, when but a small boy, he had lived for a few years 
among the lake-dwellers, and enough of their language had 
come back to him to enable him to interpret as he had done. 

As for the dog, Bram said he was simply one of the wild 
dogs that run wolf-like in packs in the northern regions from 
which these strangers had come, caught when a puppy, and 
made a pet and companion, as you could never do with a wolf. 
From that moment Ruig made up his mind that he would never 
be satisfied until he had a dog of his own. 

For several weeks the visitors remained in camp, eating 
and resting, and repairing their clothing and their weapons. 
They also showed the hunters an absolutely new thing—how 
to make and manage a boat. It took many weary days and 
some unlucky mistakes before the first log was properly hol¬ 
lowed out, trimmed so as to be stable, and launched on the 
river. It took still longer to learn how to sit in and paddle the 
rude craft, which was crank to a fearful degree. But perse¬ 
verance finally won; and after that no day passed without one 
or more of the hunters going on harpooning expeditions in 
the wide reaches of the river below the camp. 

One morning the strangers were gone. Their fire was 
cold, their hut empty, all that belonged to them carried off. 
The restless spirit of adventure was upon them; and with the 
unnecessary cunning of the savage, they had flitted in the 
night to parts unknown. But savages though they were, they 
left behind them three valuable ideas: the boat, the detachable 
harpoon-head, and the domestic pet. All three of these ideas 

[ 141 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


were distinct contributions made to the tribe by men of much 
lower grade of intelligence than their own. But no one knows 
all there is to know, and there is no one from whom some¬ 
thing is not to be learned. 


[ 142 ] 


PICTURES IN THE CAVE 






















CHAPTER XVII 
Pictures in the Cave 

A MONG the caves in the limestone cliff where the tribe 
in the winter months took refuge from the cold, there 
were some which were never used as dwellings, being 
too vast and extensive, for they would not have proved cosy 
and comfortable. Some of these ran back into the very heart 
of the cliff, with winding passages and unexpected turnings 
which sometimes dropped down into unknown depths, and 
made it exceedingly dangerous to traverse them unless one 
were familiar with the ground, or else very careful to pick his 
way by the dim light of the oil lamp, in its cup made of rein¬ 
deer horn. These caverns widened at times into huge halls, 
with a roof so high as to be almost out of sight, though up 
above there could be seen many sparkling points of light shin¬ 
ing like stars. These were bits of quartz imbedded in the 
limestone. In some of the rooms where water had seeped 
through the roof, there were long pendants resembling stone 
icicles, formed by the slow hardening of the water, so impreg¬ 
nated with lime that it might almost be called liquid stone. On 
the floor of the cave would be other formations reaching up 
toward those which hung from the roof; these were made by 
the drippings from above, hardening upon the ground; and 
sometimes the two would meet, making a sort of stone pillar 
that looked as though it were built for the purpose of holding 
up the roof. 

All this was, of course, most interesting to the children, 
for like all boys and girls they were full of curiosity and love 
[ 145 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


of adventure; but while they had some of them been taken 
by the older people part way into these caverns, they had been 
forbidden to go in alone, as there was not only danger of 
accident from a mis-step in the winding passages, but it was 
also possible to get lost in the branching galleries, some of 
which had never been thoroughly explored. 

There was one enormous room, however, into which they 
were permitted to go, for it was not very far in, and had no 
holes nor unexpected inequalities in the floor. The walls of 
this room were exceedingly flat and smooth, as was also the 
ceiling, which in this cave was not very lofty, not more than 
ten or twelve feet above the floor. 

The place was circular in shape, widening out rather sud¬ 
denly from the narrow gallery by which it was approached; 
and walls and ceiling alike were nearly covered with the most 
lifelike pictures of animals, drawn there by the artists of the 
tribe. Here was a herd of reindeer, or a drove of wild cattle. 
Here was the stately form of the giant elk. In another place 
could be seen the lumbering figure of the cave-bear; in 
another, were represented two woolly mammoths, forehead to 
forehead, engaged in deadly combat. One could distinguish 
several different kinds of horses; and the ibex and the chamois 
were also to be seen. 

Some of these pictures were in outline merely, the form 
being traced in the soft limestone by a sharp graver of flint, and 
then filled in with black. Some were shaded to represent the 
fur or the hair, the manes of the horses and the heavy overcoat 
of the rhinoceros; but many of the drawings were not only 
outlined and shaded, but colored as well, in red, yellow, black 
and white; and this gave them a very life-like appearance, as 
these were the true colors of their coat or hide. 

Ruig had a natural taste for drawing and carving, which 

[ 146 ] 


PICTURES IN THE CAVE 


had been encouraged in him by old Graum, himself a notable 
artist, as has been seen; and from him Ruig had gained a good 
many useful ideas, and had received many lessons in the orna¬ 
mentation of his weapons by means of etching and carving. 
Indeed some measure of this artistic gift must have been 
present in the entire tribe, for there was not in any hut an 
article of bone or horn which was not covered with some kind 
of pattern or design, figures of animals being the favorite, 
with now and then that of one of the larger birds. 

On the cave-walls, however, there was room for a wider 
range of art; for here there could be pictured the life-size form 
of even the largest beast. It was wonderful that they were 
drawn with such fidelity to nature; they showed tremendous 
spirit and life; and when it is remembered that they were not 
copied, but drawn from memory, they seemed more wonderful 
still. The artists had, of course, seen the living animals many 
times; but it is one thing to copy, and another and much more 
difficult thing to see with the mind’s eye, and in the correct 
proportion and form. Yet so realistic were these cave-pictures 
that Ruig, often as he had seen them, never failed to be 
startled when the dim light of the oil-lamp, suddenly falling 
upon the figure of a saber-tooth or of a mammoth, made him 
stand out from the darkness as though alive. 

Some of these drawings must have been made a very long 
while before Ruig’s time, as there were some animals depicted 
which none of the hunters had ever seen in this vicinity. 
Perhaps they had all been killed off, or it may be they had 
migrated toward the north or the south on account of changes 
in the climate; at any rate they were not here now, and had 
not been within the memory of living man. 

It so happened that Bram, whom Ruig had found one day 
melting the metal out of a bit of rock in his fire, and who had 
[ 147 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


then talked with him so interestingly about the future of the 
tribe, was one of the best of all the artists, and the one most in 
demand for cave-drawings. These drawings had a certain 
purpose, and were not made merely to satisfy an artistic 
instinct. There was about them an element of superstition, 
for one thing. For example, when a hunter was planning an 
expedition against a certain animal which was likely to prove 
dangerous, he would send for the artist, and engage him to 
draw upon the cave-wall a picture of this animal, which sup¬ 
posedly would bring him success in his hunting, or would ward 
off possible danger. On some portions of the wall were very 
many prints of human hands, which had been dipped in paint 
and then laid flat upon the rock. These were of all shapes 
and sizes; but all were in one respect alike; one or more of 
the fingers were missing—chopped off perhaps as part of some 
religious rite; and the imprint of the mutilated hand upon the 
wall had some peculiar significance the nature of which Ruig 
did not know; nor had any of the men ever been willing to 
tell him. Pehaps he would know when he became of age, and 
was initiated into full membership in the tribe. 

As a rule, the cave-drawings were made in secret, no one 
being allowed to be present while the artists were at work. 
Two persons, however, were required, as one of them must hold 
the oil-lamp to light the other as he made his drawing, moving 
the lamp from place to place in order that its dim flicker might 
fall upon the necessary spot. Bram had allowed Ruig to 
accompany him on one or two occasions, for he seemed to have 
taken a fancy to him, and always liked to have him around. 
The two would go into the cave about nightfall, laden with the 
proper tools, and having selected his location, Bram would 
lay out his materials upon the floor, and proceed in a syste¬ 
matic manner to do his work. 

[ 148 ] 



The Artist 

























PICTURES IN THE CAVE 


The outfit consisted of the lamp, made of a hollow section 
of reindeer horn, from which the marrow had been scraped 
out. This held about half a pint of oil, with a wick of woven 
grass. It yielded a miserable and uncertain light, but it was 
the best that was to be had. 

Several containers, also of reindeer horn, held the pig¬ 
ments—black from the smoke of the lamp, the yellow and red 
from ochre mixed with oil; and the white from a sort of greasy 
clay dug along the river-bank. White was sparingly used, 
merely to bring out the high lights. Black was mostly for the 
outlines, or for shading. Red and yellow were the chief colors 
used in filling in. 

Being ready for work, while Ruig held the light aloft, 
Bram would take a piece of hard white clay, and standing off 
at arm’s length from the wall, would sketch in a few bold 
sweeping strokes the main outline of his picture—a chamois, a 
wild ox, or whatever it might be. Next, more carefully, he 
put in the details: horns, eyes, hoofs and ears. This having 
been done to his satisfaction, and all unnecessary marks 
erased, Bram laid down his crayon, took in hand his flint chisel 
and stone mallet, and following the outlines which he had 
drawn, cut them cleanly into the limestone wall. He next 
blew all dust from the cutting, and rubbed into it with his 
fingers some of the thick lamp-black from one of his con¬ 
tainers, until the entire outline was filled, smears being wiped 
away with a bunch of dry grass. Now the figure of the ani¬ 
mal stood out against the grayish background of the rock with 
startling distinctness, making a very striking effect. 

All this would take several hours, as the chiseling was of 
necessity slow work, and had to be carefully done. But Ruig 
never grew tired of watching, although his arm often became 
stiff with holding up the lamp and moving it back and forth so 
[ 149 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


that Bram could see. But when the outlining was completed, 
and Bram began to lay on the colors, yellow and red for the 
coats of the animals, a touch of red for nostrils and eyes, and 
a little white on the point of shoulder and hip, Ruig’s delight 
knew no bounds. He was conscious of having assisted at an 
artistic performance which partook also of religious signifi¬ 
cance; and looked forward to the day when as a grown man he 
would no longer be an assistant merely, but a principal per¬ 
former. He felt that he had it in him to draw with all Bram’s 
skill the figures of the various animals as he saw them with the 
eye of his mind; and determined to practice at every possible 
opportunity, in order to perfect himself in the art. 

There was one day when for some reason or other Bram 
relaxed his rule of secrecy, and himself invited the children 
to watch him make a drawing upon the walls of a cave where, 
just within the entrance, where daylight fell upon it, was a 
broad flat space just right for a picture. And here, while the 
boys and girls stood, squatted and lay all about him, he made 
a spirited picture of a pair of wild cattle standing side by side, 
so full of life that they seemed ready to spring out of the 
rock into the open. 

When the chiefs learned what he had done, they repri¬ 
manded Bram, and banished him to his cave for a week; but 
the drawing was left where it was; and every time that Ruig 
passed the spot, he drew from it fresh inspiration for his future 
work. 


[150] 


GROWING UP 





















CHAPTER XVIII 
Growing Up 

S IX summers and winters had passed since Ruig up in his 
tree had caught his first sight of big game, and had 
watched in fascination the progress of the mammoth 
along his path through the woods. He no longer played with 
a boy’s javelin, fit only for rabbits and quail; but could balance 
and cast a real spear. His shoulders had grown broad, his 
chest was deep and roomy, his arms and legs had taken on 
the lines of full development, and it was plainly to be seen 
that Ruig was destined to become a large man. Yet for all 
his increasing size and weight, he retained the narrow waist of 
the runner, seemingly out of proportion to the wide spread of 
his shoulders. 

The use of the bow and arrow, since their first demonstra¬ 
tion by Huth at the time of the field-day, had become universal 
among the hunters of the tribe. Not a man of them but could 
bring down any fair-sized game at fifty paces; and Ruig had 
grown especially expert in the handling of this weapon. He 
liked the javelin well enough, and there was something rather 
fascinating in the feel of the light stone axe, as you balanced 
and threw it whirling, to turn at the last moment and dart at 
the mark edge on. But best of all Ruig loved the bow. He 
loved to set the stout ash against his foot and bend it until 
the loop in the cord snapped into its notch, and the great arc 
with its suggestion of power fitted snugly in his palm. He 
loved to place the arrow to the string, and left arm at full 
stretch, right hand drawing the tense cord back until it touched 
[ 153 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


his breast, then to release it and hear the hum of the string 
and the swish of the feathered arrow in its swift flight through 
the air. Muscular arm and steady nerve, clear eye and sound 
judgment, were all requisites of the accomplished bowman; 
and these Ruig possessed in full measure. 

But it was not only in point of physical size and strength 
that Ruig was growing up; his mind had been developing as 
well. He had learned much by listening to the conversation 
of older people who had had much experience of life, as well 
as by asking questions about things which he did not under¬ 
stand. He had always been a favorite with the men, and his 
friendship with old Graum, and later on with Bram, had 
matured his thinking powers earlier than is the case with most 
boys. Ruig was just on the hither side of manhood. A few 
days more, and he would cross the line, and be received as a 
full member into the ranks of the tribe, entitled to bear his 
part in its councils, and to assume his share of its privileges 
and its responsibilities. 

The days when these initiations took place were always 
looked forward to with eager anticipation by the members of 
the tribe in general, for they signified the filling up of the 
ranks of providers and defenders, which were continually 
being thinned through death and old age. To the young man 
about to be initiated, it was not only a momentous day, but a 
solemn one; for henceforth much would be expected of him 
which had never been expected before. Failures and mistakes 
would no longer be laughed at and condoned, but seriously 
noted, and if need be, punished, for the entire tribe might be 
made to suffer through the cowardice or heedlessness of a 
single member; and in time of emergency or danger there was 
no room for weaklings. 

As the time drew near, therefore, for Ruig to be received 

[ 154 ] 


GROWING UP 


into tribal membership, he did a great deal of thinking, often 
going away by himself into the woods, or paddling his boat to 
some remote backwater of the river, where undisturbed he 
might try to realize what lay before him. The very anticipation 
seemed to make him older; for it gave him a soberer view of 
many things which he had always taken for granted, and 
caused him to especially appreciate the essential qualities of 
courage and steadfastness at their true value. 

At dawn of the morning when the initiation ceremonies 
were to take place, the hollow booming of the medicine-man’s 
drum, seeming to come from beneath the ground, reminded 
the tribe of the special character of the day. Every one turned 
out early, and hastened to the center of the camp, where there 
was a wide level space covered with thick short grass. At one 
side, in an interested, shifting crowd, were assembled the 
women and girls; while upon the grassy area itself gathered 
the men, who alone took part in the ceremonies, the others 
being accorded the role of spectators only. 

The men took their places upon three sides of a square. 
At the back were the elders, no longer able to hunt or travel, 
but still sage in counsel, and always held in great respect 
because of their experience. On two other sides, opposite one 
another, sat in numbers equally divided the strong active men, 
hunters and scouts; the fourth side was open. 

Thus assembled, the tribe maintained complete silence, 
all eyes being bent upon the ground as though in profound 
meditation. After several long minutes there could again be 
heard, muffled and far away, the faint reverberation of the 
sorcerer’s drum. Eight times it throbbed, and was still. As 
the last stroke died mutteringly away, there rose to his feet 
from among the ranks of the elders an aged man. Supported 
upon either side by a strong-armed hunter, he tremblingly 
[ 155 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


advanced to the center of the square, and thrust into the soft 
sod a small dead tree, a few withered leaves clinging to its 
twigs, and the dried bark hanging in ragged patches upon its 
stem. Breaking with his gnarled fingers the dead branches, 
so that hanging helplessly down they gave the finishing 
touches to what now seemed the perfect symbol of age and 
decay, he tottered back to his place, and sank again to his seat 
upon the ground. 

Another period of silence followed, the eyes of the men 
turned no longer now, as before, toward the ground, but upon 
the dry and lifeless tree standing in the middle of the square. 

Again the sorcerer’s drum sent forth its foreboding note, 
eight times repeated. When the last faint echo died, there 
sprang lightly forth from among the hunters a youth in his 
early twenties, a model of muscular beauty and strength. 
Striding off a few rods to a thicket of young maples, he severed 
at the root, with a vigorous stroke of his keen flint hatchet, a 
splendid sapling, which he sharpened at its base to a point. 
Throwing it over his shoulder, he returned to the square, and 
advancing to the spot where stood the dried and ragged tree 
set up by the aged hunter, he in turn thrust his sapling firmly 
into the ground, so that it seemed growing there. This done, 
he returned to his place in the ranks. 

For a time there was absolute silence once more, while the 
gaze of all was riveted upon the two trees, the living and the 
dead, the withered and the fresh, exhibiting in their contrast 
the mystery of the vital force of Nature, which, drawing life 
out of the ground to nourish the tiny seedling, pours into it 
force and energy so that it swells and grows, the sap coursing 
through its veins until it has become a tree, perfect after its 
kind. But years pass, and now Nature is through with her 
creation; the sap slows and dwindles, receding farther and 
[ 156 ] 


GROWING UP 


farther from the tips of the twigs, back and downward until 
all vitality is gone, and nothing is left but a dead trunk, which 
in time will crumble into powder, and mingle again with the 
earth out of which it came. 

In the same way men come and go; and the planting of 
these two trees was meant to symbolize the continual replac¬ 
ing by young and vigorous life of the other lives which are 
fading to decay. 

As the dull moan of the great drum died away for the third 
time, Ruig stepped out from the throng of spectators, and 
advanced to the center of the square. He made a fine picture 
as he stood there, head erect, muscular arms hanging slightly 
flexed at his sides, his bronzed body supported by the round 
pillars of his fine legs, his eyes level and fearless as he gazed 
into the face of the headman of the tribe, who now stepped 
forth to meet him, while the three ranks of men rose to their 
feet and stood silently in place. 

The chief stepped up to Ruig, unfastened the strap by 
which his skin garment was held up over the shoulder, and 
then belted the loosened robe snugly about the waist, leaving 
the body and arms free. This was the sign that Ruig was now 
in full hunter’s trim, fit for the trail or the fight. 

Next, in the loop at the left side of Ruig’s belt the chief 
thrust the handle of a light flint axe; in the belt itself he 
stuck half a dozen arrows. In one of Ruig’s hands he placed 
an unstrung bow; in the other a heavy spear. Then, receiving 
from an attendant the skin of a wolf, the chief laid this for a 
moment upon Ruig’s naked shoulder. Removing this, he 
replaced it with the pelt of a fox; and this again with the 
striped hide of a tiger. The candidate was now supposed to 
be endued with the speed, cunning, and strength of the three 
animals whose skins had touched him. 

[ 157 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


The chief now withdrew to the ranks, leaving Ruig alone 
in the center of the square. Once more faintly sounded the 
distant drum; as it ceased, Ruig advanced to the open side of 
the square, shook his spear above his head, and with a mighty 
throw hurled it fifty yards to quiver in the side of a lone tree 
which stood in the meadow below. Placing the end of the bow 
against his foot, he bent and strung it; drew three arrows from 
his belt; and fitting them in quick succession to the string, 
shot them one after the other in a high curve into the air, so 
swiftly that the third had left the string before the first had 
fallen to the ground. Lastly, drawing from his belt the little 
axe, he balanced it for a moment at the height of his shoulder, 
then cast it toward the distant tree in which his spear still 
quivered. Whirling with the rapidity of light, so that the eye 
could scarcely follow it, the axe darted at the tree, and sank to 
the very helve in its trunk. 

The ritual was over. The candidate had been duly re¬ 
ceived into tribal membership, and was now accepted as a 
man, a hunter, and a warrior, upon equal terms with them all. 
Boyhood lay behind him forever. 

That night Ruig watched alone with his weapons at the 
edge of the forest under the stars. At dawn, he plunged 
naked into the river, made obeisance to the sun-god, just 
appearing over the mountain-rim; and then made his way 
back to the camp, to take up life in its new phase of responsi¬ 
bility; and with mingled feelings of regret and joy. 


[158] 


THE GREAT TESTING 









CHAPTER XIX 
The Great Testing 

R UIG had been on a hunting trip up the river, and hav¬ 
ing shot a number of ducks with his bow and arrows, 
was about to turn toward home, when his foot became 
entangled in something in the long grass at the edge of the 
stream. 

He thought at first that it was a trailer from a blackberry 
vine, but when he tried to kick loose he found that he could 
not do so. Stooping down in order to free his ankles, his hand 
encountered a long thin fine of twisted sinew, which he at once 
judged to belong to a harpoon. Wondering a little at finding 
such a thing here, the river at this point being shallow and 
swift, so that there were no pools where fish could lie, he 
began to pull in the line, and at last drew toward him through 
the grass the harpoon-head to which it was attached. No 
sooner had he glanced at this than he threw himself flat on 
his face, and wormed his way along through the grass until 
he was several rods away from his original position, and 
under cover of some bushes. Only then did he venture to 
raise his head and look cautiously around. With an arrow 
ready on the string, as though expecting an attack, he studied 
the landscape sharply in all directions; but at last, seeing 
nothing unusual, he laid aside his bow, and picking up the 
harpoon-head which had aroused his suspicions, he carefully 
examined it. 

He found this harpoon-head to be totally different in pat¬ 
tern from any which were made by his own tribe, both in its 
[ 161 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


general form, and in the shape of the eye through which the 
line was run; and it was this difference which at first glance 
had brought to his mind a sense of danger. A man, to whom 
this harpoon belonged, had been here not long ago, for the 
line was new, and the ivory head of the weapon was clean and 
bright. And if one man was near, perhaps other men, many 
men, might be in hiding, preparing an attack upon his village 
and its people. Ruig felt that he must find out something 
about this stranger who owned the harpoon before he returned 
to camp; for while he did not really have much fear of a 
hostile attack, he nevertheless cherished that instinctive re¬ 
sentment against intruders which every hunter feels when his 
own familiar territory is in danger of infringement. 

After waiting for half an hour, then feeling pretty sure 
that there was no one in the immediate vicinity, Ruig ventured 
out of his cover, and scouted up and down the river bank for 
any signs in the soft earth which might give him information. 
Not until he had advanced a mile upstream did he find any¬ 
thing; when all at once he discovered numerous human foot¬ 
prints in the mud, and strange to say, numerous tracks of 
wolves as well. His first thought was that wolves had pursued 
these unknown men, who had sought to escape by swimming; 
but on second thought he decided against this, for it was a 
season when wolves would not be so bold as to attack a band 
of men, since there was plenty of game about; and besides, he 
changed his mind about the wolves altogether, for on exam¬ 
ination he found that the prints were of a different character 
from those left by the pads of the wolf. They resembled 
them indeed, but the toes were set at a different angle with 
the palm of the foot. All of a sudden Ruig recalled the dog 
which had accompanied the four savages who had come into 
camp several years ago. Eagerly he scanned the signs in the 
[ 162 ] 


THE GREAT TESTING 


mud at the river’s edge. There must be many dogs, how many 
he could not tell; but enough at least to form a considerable 
pack; and that would mean a considerable company of men. 
Closely scanning the horizon, he discerned against some woods 
in the distance a faint bluish tinge of smoke; and was sure 
that there in the woods must be the camp of the strangers. 

Ruig wet his finger and held it up. The faint air that 
was stirring was blowing away from him and toward the woods. 
He was therefore to windward of the enemy, if enemy it was; 
and was in some danger of discovery unless he exercised unus¬ 
ual care. 

After thinking awhile, Ruig made up his mind that it 
would be best for him to return to camp, as night was draw¬ 
ing on, and report to the chiefs what he had discovered. It 
would be a feather in his cap, for it would be the first thing 
of any importance which he had done since his initiation into 
the tribe; and he was burning to distinguish himself in some 
way. That this discovery was a thing of importance, was 
beyond question; for the presence in the neighborhood of a 
number of unknown men, accompanied by a pack of dogs, 
was at any rate not to be taken lightly, while it might mean 
something very serious indeed. 

Accordingly Ruig made his way home as quickly as he 
could, and told Narg, whom he met on the outskirts of the 
camp, what he had seen. Later in the evening, a council was 
called to discuss the situation; and it was decided that Narg, 
who was a famous tracker, should accompany Ruig next day 
to the place where he had seen the smoke, and try to get near 
enough to the strangers’ camp to estimate the number of men 
and dogs it contained. They were also to form an idea if they 
could of the character of the camp itself—whether the men 
were hunters merely, or outfitted for a warlike purpose. 
[ 163 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


Narg and Ruig, therefore, on the morning of the following 
day, fetched a wide circle away from the river, and keeping 
always to leeward, managed at last to reach the woods in which 
the camp was believed to be hidden. Making their way cau¬ 
tiously through the trees and underbrush, they reached the 
edge of a gully or ravine, out of which at some little distance 
rose the sound of voices, the barking of dogs, and all the vari¬ 
ous noises of camp life. Creeping along the brink of the 
gully toward the sounds, they parted the bushes at the edge 
of the bank, and looked down upon a strange scene. 

Below them was a rude settlement of bark huts, with fires 
smoking here and there; but the gaze of Narg and Ruig 
became focussed at once upon the men who formed the camp 
population. They seemed of the same type as the lake- 
dwellers who had come into their own village some years ago; 
but these men had an indescribably fierce and cruel aspect. 
They were about fifty in number, and were all squatting around 
in a circle, evidently debating some question of great impor¬ 
tance, while in various places round about lounged a couple of 
score of huge dogs, high in the shoulder, thin in the flank, 
as tall as a pony, with lolling tongues and wolfish eyes, and 
long fangs which now and then snapped viciously together as 
they caught at a troublesome fly. These dogs were manifestly 
under discipline, however; for when one of them so far forgot 
himself as to intrude upon the circle of the council, a harsh 
word of command would always send him quickly back among 
the trees. 

The two scouts could understand nothing of the language 
spoken by the strangers, and they wished that Bram, with his 
knowledge of many tongues, had come with them. Two or 
three words, however, which were repeated many times, and 
always with great emphasis, they memorized, that they might 
[ 164 ] 


THE GREAT TESTING 


ask Bram when they reached home again if he knew what they 
meant. The council now broke up, with much excited chatter, 
and a great deal of extravagant gesturing and pointing; and 
the men then scattered about the camp, each one gathering his 
weapons and looking them carefully over, with the evident 
purpose of putting them into the best condition for immediate 
use. 

These weapons consisted of spears, javelins, axes, clubs, 
and flint knives of a peculiarly wicked pattern; but there were 
no bows and arrows, and Narg and Ruig noted this with much 
satisfaction, for in case of an encounter their own men, trained 
in the use of this weapon, would possess a very distinct 
advantage. 

By this time the breeze had died away, and the two scouts, 
fearing lest it shift to another quarter and so bring their scent 
to the keen-nosed dogs, noiselessly retreated, and hastened 
back to their own camp, where they reported what they had 
seen; and the matter was discussed that evening by the hunters 
and elders in full council. 

At the council, three different lines of action were recom¬ 
mended by the speakers. First, that a surprise attack be made 
without delay upon the camp of the strangers for the purpose 
of wiping them out. Second, that messengers be sent to treat 
with them, and arrange conditions of peace; and third, that 
no such move of any kind be made, but that preparations for 
defense be completed, so that in case of an attack they might 
not be caught unprepared; that scouts be out night and day to 
guard against surprise; and that the business of life go on as 
usual until something happened to interrupt it. 

After much debate, the third plan prevailed. The men 
encamped up the river might not be hostile after all, in which 
case an unprovoked attack might lead to endless complications 
[ 165 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


in the future. On the other hand, to send out messengers with 
proposals for a treaty would not only assume that the purpose 
of the others was unfriendly, which was not yet certain, but 
would be in itself a confession of weakness on their own part. 
As for the third plan, it seemed best in every way, and more 
especially because the men of the tribe were not primarily war¬ 
riors, but hunters, whose quarrels were with animals, not with 
men, so that warfare was new to them. It was beyond a doubt, 
nevertheless, that they would defend their hunting-grounds 
with stubbornness and courage. 

The choice of a leader was now discussed; and it was 
agreed that Ruig’s father, as one of the most experienced 
among the chiefs, should be in full charge of the plans for the 
defense of the camp, with power to select his own assistants; 
and then, after posting sentries for the night, the council 
adjourned. 

Several days passed with no sign on the part of the new¬ 
comers, although it was known that they still maintained their 
camp up the river, where the smoke of their fires was plainly 
to be seen. Meanwhile the hunters busied themselves in mak¬ 
ing ready their weapons, and in talking over the best methods 
of meeting an attack in case one were actually made, which 
some of them were inclined to doubt. 

The village was located several hundred yards back from 
the river, with the limestone cliffs in which the caves were 
situated at its rear. Up river, on the right as one faced it, 
was a swamp of considerable extent, running from the base of 
the cliff almost to the river, from which it was separated by a 
narrow strip of firm ground a few yards wide along the bank. 
A fringe of bushes lined the edge of the stream. To the left, 
the ground was open and level as far as one could see. 

Having a plan of defense in mind, Ruig’s father looked 

[ 166 ] 


THE GREAT TESTING 


over the ground; and although he, like the others, had had 
no experience in battle, he saw at once that the lay of the 
land was most favorable for the defenders. The invaders 
must approach from up river. The cliffs were too lofty and 
too steep to permit an attack from that quarter, and extended 
for miles, making an attempt to skirt them very improbable. 
On the right, the camp was protected by the swamp. The river 
was a barrier in front. It was altogether likely that the enemy 
if he came would proceed along the narrow strip of firm ground 
next the stream until clear of the swamp, and would then face 
to the left and spread out for the attack. 

This, as events proved, was exactly what happened. Early 
one morning the scouts came in and reported that the camp 
up river was abandoned, and the entire body of strangers on 
the move down the course of the stream. Screened as they 
were by the thick growth of bushes upon the bank, nothing 
more than this could be said; but this was enough, for it was 
plain that an attack must be looked for at any moment. The 
hunters, therefore, to each of whom his position had been 
already assigned, went to their stations. The women and chil¬ 
dren were sent back for safety to the caves. Ruig’s father 
with a selected group of men was at the center of the defensive 
line. Narg had command at the right, near the swamp; while 
Bram, who for all his morose disposition and general unpopu¬ 
larity was a mighty hunter, and respected by all for his shrewd¬ 
ness, held the open side on the left. 

As there was no cover of which advantage might be taken, 
the men lay prone on the ground, so as to afford as small a 
target as possible for hostile missiles; with bows strung and 
arrows ready, spears and axes close at hand, they awaited, with 
no little excitement, the development of the expected attack. 

This came more suddenly than they had guessed; for as 

[ 167 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


they eagerly scanned the distant bushes along the river bank, 
behind which dark forms could here and there be dimly seen 
flitting from cover to cover, all at once the air was split by a 
frightful yelling; and a cloud of moving bodies burst into the 
open and rushed headlong upon them. Brandishing spears 
and clubs, their long wild hair streaming back from their con¬ 
vulsed faces, they came at speed across the flat, preceded by a 
hail of harpoons, most of which fortunately fell short; but 
strange and fearful to see—and striking panic to more than 
one heart among the defenders—among the savage men, and 
along with them, bounded two score huge and savage hounds, 
of an aspect more horrid than that of the men, with open jaws 
and gleaming eyes, yet running silently, as though sure of 
accomplishing their deadly purpose. 

For a moment the defenders were at a loss; but at once 
firm and clear rang out the command of the leader: “Arrows! 
at the dogs!” As one man the hunters sprang to their feet; 
the great bows twanged; the white arrows flew. Down went 
half a dozen hounds as though struck by lightning. A second 
volley, and a dozen more were accounted for. There was no 
time for a third volley, for now the enemy were right upon 
them; and throwing away their bows and seizing axe and 
spear, the hunters joined hand to hand in the fierce melee that 
followed. Thrust and parry, feint and recovery, wheel and 
sidestep, then closing in deadly grapple, with naked hands 
which felt for throat and eyeball, or flint knife sent home 
between the ribs, the battle swayed hither and thither with no 
apparent gain for either side. 

Man for man, the newcomers were no match physically 
for the men of the tribe; yet so determined was their on¬ 
slaught, and so disconcerting the appearance of the dogs, 
which wheeled snapping and growling among the fighting 
[ 168 ] 


THE GREAT TESTING 


groups, sinking their fangs in the flesh of arm or leg, or spring¬ 
ing upon the breast of an opponent to bear him by sheer 
weight to the ground, that for a moment or two the issue 
seemed in doubt. Huth’s two arrows had spitted a brace of 
the beasts as they came on. Narg brained a couple with his 
axe. A third launched itself at his throat as his arm swung 
wide for a blow; but in midair as it sprang he kicked it in the 
belly, and as it rolled howling in the dust he pinned it with a 
javelin, and turned again to meet two savages who menaced 
him from either side. Dropping his weapon, Narg seized each 
by the throat with his immense hands, and dashing their skulls 
together with fearful force, he cracked them like eggshells, 
and threw the writhing bodies upon the ground. 

Ruig, fighting near the center, after discharging his two 
arrows, found no immediate opponent. Alert and ready, he 
watched with admiration the coolness of his father, and the 
dexterity with which he handled axe and spear. Two men 
ran at him at once. Feinting at one of them with his spear, 
at the same moment he dashed his axe in the face of the sec¬ 
ond, splitting it like a ripe apple. As the other cunningly 
ducked and ran under his guard, he gripped the unfortunate 
savage with both hands, bent him over his powerful knee and 
broke his spine. Springing aside as a third enemy thrust at him 
with a spear, letting the attacker over-reach himself, before 
he could recover Ruig sank a flint knife between his shoulders. 

The battle was now a wild confusion of whirling weapons 
and leaping bodies, half-seen through clouds of dust, amid 
which dashed to and fro the deadly hounds. But by degrees 
the superior physique and higher morale of the defenders 
began to prevail. One by one the enemy broke out of the 
press, seeking escape; figures could be seen fleeing in all 
directions for cover. But Bram and his detachment cut them 
[ 169 ] 


STORIES OF THE STONE AGE 


off from the open ground on the left; the cliff prevented all 
hope at the rear; before them lay the river; and at the right the 
swamp, where Huth’s company of archers lay grimly in wait. 

Some of the fugitives threw themselves into the river to 
swim to the opposite bank, but the deadly arrows overtook 
them. Others tried to thread the morass, leaping from tus¬ 
sock to tussock until a mis-step sent them to a horrible death 
by suffocation in the slimy depths. At last only the few sur¬ 
viving dogs remained, surrounded by a narrowing circle of 
hunters, who met their savage rushes with axe and spear until 
the last brute went down, dangerous even in death. 

Leaning upon their weapons, the victors surveyed the 
field. Of their own number, four only had been killed, but 
eight had received serious wounds, and not one but had a 
scratch from a javelin, or the marks of a hound’s teeth. Of the 
enemy, barely a dozen had made good their escape by the 
path along the river-bank. 

Ruig stood a little apart, his heart beating with excitement 
and pride. He had justified his right to be considered a full- 
fledged member of the tribe. As a scout and as a fighter, he 
had borne himself like a man; and when the eyes of his 
father sought him out, and rested upon him in grave approval, 
he felt that life was very good indeed. 


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